Reflection
by fsdfsdfsd
Summary: It's the story of Substitute Soul Reaper Karin and Captain Hitsugaya. Two warriors, two children, two amazing gifts they didn't know they had, and two things they didn't know they were.
1. Death and the… Rosewood?

Chapter 1: Death and the… Rosewood?

And So the Sword of fate falls…

"_Is he-" "Give him some air!" "Hitsugaya Taicho? Can you hear me?"_

"_That's the third time this month." "I know, I-" "You can't afford to overwork yourself like this." "When was the last time you took a day off?" "Who has time for a day off? My squad's supposed to be funding the East gate repairs, not to mention we're getting ready for the transfer of the seal, and then there's the annual excursion for the Academy students, AND the tenth division still hasn't gotten the power back up-" "You know, I think it's high time you took a vacation." "Were you not list-" "Yeah, you look a little stressed." "Hmph. No way whatever you turn in will be of any use if it's completed at three in the morning. That last report-" "So, it's decided. Captain Hitsugaya, I am ordering you to take your week of vacation time." "Bu Matsumoto will never do the paperwork! I haven't taken a vacation in forty years! And I have to-" "Alright, make that a month of collective vacation time."_

"_You know, if that were anybody else, old man Yamamoto would never agree to let them take a month off." "Yes, but knowing Toshiro-chan, he'll probably break in just to nag his lieutenant. They couldn't force him to unwind unless he was all the way in the world of the living, without any way to check up on squad ten." "Hmm… you know, that's not a bad idea."_

…..

Four days later, Land of the living

…..

"Oi, Kurosaki, we're playing after school?"

Karin smiled at Kiyon, "Yeah, see you at four!"

"Hey, where you going?" Sai asked, to which the tomboy called out,

"I wanna check on something, see you later!"

At age eleven, Kurosaki Karin had spent her whole life in denial of the spirits that surrounded her world. She wasn't like her brother, who'd let himself get beaten up just to make sure some dead girl was properly respected. No, Karin would much rather play soccer with her friends and get through school without dedicating her time to the dearly departed.

However, sometimes she'd get this feeling of loneliness, or depression, or (once) joy, but whatever emotion it was certain feelings just stood out as the calls of the dead. That was when she called her big brother over, introduced the two, and forgot the whole thing ever happened.

The feeling had been going strong all day, to the point that it was getting annoying. One time some ghost freaked out so badly Karin could barely kick a ball, and that was an experience she didn't want to repeat.

Ichigo would probably be late to dinner anyways, and he might not even notice on his own. She felt the tug coming from somewhere between school and home, so she figured it wouldn't hurt anything to make a three-minute detour and direct the spirit to Ichigo.

And right now, just on top of the hill, there stood some punk kid with bleached hair playing on his cell phone. Getting closer, Karin noticed that he was around her age, and from the lack of worry, he probably didn't even know he was dead.

"Hey, kid!" The boy didn't respond; too wrapped up in whatever game he was playing. "Kid!" Or maybe this one was in denial, or some sort of loop like she'd seen in the movies where the ghost refused to let go of their past- "Kid!"

Well, that finally got his attention. "What?" Well, wasn't he the rude one. Might as well tease him a little bit, after all Karin was sticking her neck out to visit him like this.

"You know, that's never going to send, right?"

"Is that so?" Mystery boy just went back to typing.

"Yeah." No response. _Okay, maybe that wasn't obvious enough_. "You wanna know why it's never going to work?"

"Not really."

"You sure? It's kinda important."

"Is that so." Mr. Stoic just couldn't care less about the girl next to him, and that pissed Karin off.

"Yeah, you wanna know why? 'Cause you're dead."

With a small gasp, _that_ provoked a real reaction. Snowhead stopped texting all together, looked her dead in the eye and asked, "What did you just say?"

So the boy knew after all, maybe he'd just accepted it. "Yeah, 'cause nobody talks to you, everyone walks through you," Karin paused when the boy went back to typing, "…and you've got a chain hanging out of your chest-" the brunette went to grab it, "-right-" and found nothing there, "-here…"

There was an awkward pause. The punk had stopped typing and looked at her with shock written across his face. Right now, Karin couldn't care less.

All she wanted to do was get the hell out of there- _and how could she have been so __**stupid**_? All her life, the girl had tried to avoid being caught up in the spirit-saving business. She didn't care if it was important, she just hated the thought of looking crazy!_ And I really have to get out of here before mystery boy can to memorize my face. Or worse yet, take a picture._

With a swift turn Karin bolted, terrified of hanging around the white-haired stranger any longer than she had to. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Karin thought to herself.

Henceforth, it didn't matter if they gave her cramps like spoiled milk; Karin was never talking spirits again.

…..

By evening the tug faded, and Karin had practically forgotten all about her slip-up. She watched as Ichigo and Dad duked it out, apparently her brother was late because he'd been helping another spirit find peace.

And for his troubles, "Ichigo, you got another one."

"Third time this week!" Made the elementary student glad she rarely bothered getting involved. Who would want to spend each day being hounded by one spirit after another?

"I'm going up to bed!" And then there were three.

With one short phone call, "Karin, Yuzu, emergency at the hospital. Hold the fort until I get back and don't let your brother leave his room again!" And then there were two.

"Will do, dad!" Well, if Yuzu wanted to stay in, that was fine. "Hey, where you going, Karin?"

"Out."

"To do what?"

"I wanna practice my goals a little more." Come on, it wasn't late enough to need a sitter, she'd be fine on her own. "Don't worry, I'm just going to that lot around the corner. It's a two-minute walk, tops."

"Well, okay. But be back before dad get's home, or you'll be in real trouble!"

"Yeah, yeah."

…..

Half an hour later, Karin had worked up a good sweat and was feeling much better about her life. Her group of friends had managed to arrange a match against some of the kids from another school, and she was feeling more than ready for it. For just a moment, Karin felt normal.

No crazy dad, no sister who acted more like a mother, no I-have-a-savior-complex-brother, no embarrassing ghosts around-

_What was that tap I just heard?_ With that thought, Karin turned around and saw one way more embarrassing not-ghost. Was that kid sitting on top of a light poll? Not even sitting really, he was perched more like some kind of predator- _Wait, who the hell does that?_

"Hey," She called tentatively, "what're you doing up there?"

The boy had been glaring straight at her, but the moment she spoke he froze up. "You- you can see me?"

…..

By the third day, Captain Hitsugaya honestly hadn't expected anything but boredom on his trip to the land of the living. After a full week of sneaking out of onsen and hotels, three of his fellow captains had insisted on sending him here. It was anything but traditional; the land of the living was supposed to be an assignment, not a vacation spot.

But they'd reasoned, the whole point was for the prodigy to relax, and as long as he was capable of sneaking into his office he would continue to do so. And most of the tension came from fighting hollows, but so long as he kept the proper seals on and limited the amount of reiatsu he released, nothing too powerful should show up. Since there was already another soul reaper on-duty in the area he wouldn't feel pressure to do anything.

The most humiliating thing about this situation was, it had worked. The boy genius had to call in if he wanted a Senkaimon opened, and the only way he could complete any paperwork was if someone texted it to him. It only took a day to get Matsumoto to stop sending him her own work, but there was still only so much that could be done electronically. If he was relaxing it was only because he was so damn bored that he had nothing better to do.

So naturally, when a young girl showed up, fully aware that the man she'd just met had passed on, Toshiro immediately made it his goal to try to figure out just how much the child knew.

(For some reason the report he'd filled on the subject had been returned by captain Aizen, along with a note concerning Hitsugaya's "desperate need to work leading him to overreact.")

His search was put on hold with another text from Matsumoto, and Aizen's returned email. Hitsugaya managed to put a call through, but the other captain insisted that he was just looking out for "his younger co-worker's health." The conversation ended on a civil note, at least. By then night had fallen, and the prodigy reasoned that he might have trouble with the locals if they saw him following a child late at night. So he buried his gigai somewhere inconspicuous before beginning the search.

That's when things started getting… weird. He tried to detect a strong spiritual presence (besides himself), but found it extremely difficult to pick up anything. He might have assumed that she merely had little reiatsu, but if that were so she couldn't have been able sense him. To test this theory he focused his senses on other humans he could see nearby.

He felt nothing- it was as though the people weren't even there. Toshiro hadn't been _trying_ to detect spiritual pressure while on his 'vacation,' he didn't need Captain Unohana reprimanding him for working when he should be resting. But he realized that since coming to this world, he hadn't detected any Hollows, Wholes, or the local soul reaper. He'd just assumed they were there, despite never 'seeing' them.

_How very stupid of you, Hitsugaya- I'm supposed to __**catch**__ these things! Whatever 'these things' are. And why hasn't the local representative reported this?_

He was eventually able to locate the girl's presence, but she was the only one he could detect, and only when he focused on her. He didn't even know it was that particular girl until after . Shortly after he began following her trail, he felt her start to move. The interesting thing was, the farther she went, the more clearly he could sense her. It was as if something more powerful was covering the entire town with it's power, and the child was the only one strong enough to be sensed in it's shadow.

It would be pointless to call home about an abnormality before he had more information. _No, it wouldn't. You just don't want to look incompetent._ Hitsugaya ignored the little voice in his head, right now he had to consider his options. He could either continue his original investigation and follow the girl, or he could go past her to where she had been harder to sense.

The source of whatever was covering the town had to be located somewhere in that direction. _But on the other hand, 'somewhere in that direction' is a large area, and I don't have any guarantee I'll find it if I go there. I don't even know what I'm looking for, so it's probably best to stick with the abnormality I _can_ recognize. _

He followed the girl, deciding to go through with his test. Despite what he already knew (and had guessed) about the child's power, he hadn't expected to spend less than thirty seconds watching her kick a ball around, turn around and address him personally.

"You-you can see me?" The captain asked. _Which is to be expected, what's abnormal is that she can sense me._

"Well, yeah…" Mystery girl seemed scared now. "How- how did you get up there?" Amazing. She had to have something wrong with her, for a human to sense spiritual energy… Or maybe it was only because of the strange presence- but no other humans could see him, he'd checked. "Hello? You going to come down from there?"

After considering the pros and cons of staying where he was, Toshiro nodded and leapt down from his current spot. He ignored the startled gasp of the brunette and walked up to her. "Uh, so…"

"Am I to take it that you've only seen Wholes before?"

"Ah- what?" Well, that answered that. If the child didn't even know the proper names for the spirits of this world she'd have no way of understanding her powers. _Which also means she doesn't have any information on what's wrong with this town. Or she doesn't know the details._

"Spirits with chains on their chests." _I suppose it's possible that whatever went wrong here also has gone completely unchecked by anyone who knows anything about the Soul Society._

"Well, uh, that is, before today…" The girl kept fidgeting, obviously awed to meet someone of such greater power than her own. "…well, I guess not, since I've seen you and _you're_ clearly some sort of spirit."

"Point taken." She smiled a little, "But you've never met anyone like me before today, have you?" If the girl was going to go around giving off enough reiatsu to see the dead, she might as well know what she was looking at. He wasn't going to give out any information that couldn't be discovered by powerful humans through deduction (except for the specific names of spirits), and if she did know something, perhaps he could get her to slip up if he spoke to her.

"Uh…"

The prodigy sighed, "Fine then. It looks like somebody's got to explain things to you, and it might as well be me." _Remember to look comforting and open. If she is just a human, I want to convince her I'm not a threat._ The child looked confused for a moment, but when he began talking she listened.

"First of all, the spirit's you've met are called wholes. They are the spirits of the recently deceased, still trapped in this realm. There are three basic types of spirits, Wholes, Hollows, and soul reapers. You got that?"

"Uh, wholes, holes, and grim reapers. Yeah, got it." Did she-

A vein throbbed in the captain's head. "That's _hollows_, wholes and _soul_ reapers. Idiot."

"Hey-"

"Moving on, I am a soul reaper. You can usually tell us apart from wholes because of our uniforms and the fact that our chain of fate does not show."

"Chain of what now?" Could this idiot _please_ try to keep up?

"Chain of fate- you see it on the chests of wholes. You tried to find one on me earlier today."

"Oh, that thing."

"Anyways, soul reapers are sent to help wholes pass on to the next life, which is where we live as well. We can travel between this world and the world of the dead, and we do so for two reasons."

"So you're a psychopomp." He was surprised she even knew what that word meant. "I see dead people. Of course I know a little bit about the afterlife." Did he say that aloud?

"Our second mission," Hitsugaya ignored the girl's attempts to interrupt him for questions, "is to purify and fight Hollows. The third type of spirit, Hollows are wholes who have stayed in this world for too long, and have turned into demonic creatures."

"Wait, what was that? Demons?" _It's risky telling her this much, but if she hasn't already seen Hollows, that proves the situation is worse than I thought. Hollows should be flocking here, what with all the excess energy, and the girl should be one of their biggest targets._

"Hollows come in all shapes and sizes, but you can easily recognize them by the mask they wear on their face, and by the hole they have on their chest. Hollows usually eat Wholes, but sometimes they can be attracted to powerful humans with lots of spirit energy. Humans like you."

"M-me?" the brunette squealed, "I don't- I mean, are you sure-"

"In any case," the prodigy cut her off, "I'm only telling you this because we're going to have to send someone to watch over you." He pulled out his phone and began texting a report of his findings.

"It's standard procedure when we find an unusually powerful human, you just happen to have enough power to see soul reapers. I figured you would rather know why you're going to be followed around by dead people for the rest of your life." Not true, but if more soul reapers were coming in to investigate, it wouldn't hurt if she felt protected by their presence, instead of frightened.

"Now hold on, just a second!" the girl got right up next to him then, not that he really cared. "What do you mean, follow me, who the hell gives you permission to do that, anyways!"

"Soul reaper, remember?"

"Well, if you're going to be stalking me-" The insolent little thing reached over and _grabbed _for his phone. "Then at least send someone female!"

"What the hell do you care!" Hitsugaya knew he shouldn't be fighting with a human, but she (and this mystery) had been pushing his buttons all night and he was at his limit.

"Listen, just because you're my age doesn't give you the right to follow me around!"

"I'm at least ten times your age!"

"Yeah, well you don't look like it, pipsqueak!" Oh, that was it.

"Sai!" That ought to teach the little- uh, _I have really got to start watching my thoughts more closely._

"What- what the hell did you do to me!" But at this point, the captain was too pissed off to be patient. He simply picked up his phone and continued- "Hey, I'm talking to you, kid!"

"I am NOT a kid!"

In retrospect, he probably would have gotten the paperwork done much faster if he could just stop fighting with the mortal, but at the time he didn't give a damn.

…..

It's time

"_I have news."_

"_Are you sure?" "Positive. He'll be at the exact location I gave you." "And the Seireitei has really cut him off?" "To a great enough degree that you'll be able to complete your mission without interference." "…" "Something wrong?" "It's just- it all seems too convenient." "Honestly, have I ever lied to you?" "No, no you haven't." "Then get going. And have fun."_

"_I have a job for you."_

"_Send your minions to the location I gave."_

"_Uh, you may want to take a look." "Well well, it looks like our friend is waiting until after the other Hollows have been sent out." "You okay with that?" "Why wouldn't I be?"_

…..

It took about two seconds for Ichigo to realize that the noise he heard was definitely not a truck or the TV. It took another two seconds for him to look out the window. Five seconds later, his brain finally processed that_ Yes, that is a giant monster outside my window. Yes, it is eating that poor girl. Yes, that is a lot of blood._

"YUZU!" _Screw subtlety,_ Ichigo thought as he dashed down the stairs, _I have to make sure she's alright._

Thankfully the blonde hadn't left the kitchen. "Ichigo?" _Damn it, when did that thing get so close to the house? Why is there more than one?_ "Ichigo, are you al-"

Ichigo didn't give her time to finish, he just grabbed his sisters arm and pulled her _the hell __**away**__ from that thing._ Yuzu kept struggling, but he kept his hand over her mouth. _God, please don't let it notice us._

Seconds passed in tension, waiting for the terrible noises to stop. Yuzu stopped struggling, but her medium brother no longer cared. Finally he heard heavy footsteps; something outside was leaving.

He breathed a sigh of relief and allowed his grip to loosen. Naturally, Yuzu took this opportunity to break free. Ichigo smiled even as she chewed him out, relieved that they both had made it.

In perfect accordance with the universe's habit of screwing things over just as everything looked like it would turn out okay, that was when the wall exploded.

For a few precious seconds the teenager lay immobile from shock. The moment a rock clocked Yuzu in the head, those seconds ended.

"Yuzu!" Ichigo caught his sister, even as something large whacked him on the shoulder. A tiny moan escaped her lips, assuring him that the girl was still breathing. _Thank god. Now I just have to get us out of here alive._ He noticed the giant arm reaching into the kitchen just as he had started to pick her up on his back.

_That thing- it's gonna keep coming._ As he put her down, Ichigo scanned the room for a weapon. _Too bad. I'm not 'the one who protects' for nothing._

Settling upon a stepstool that had stayed in one piece Ichigo called out, "Hey, ugly!" The teenager ran towards the thing with all of his might, taunting it as he went. "Why don't you fight somebody who can-"

He'd barely gotten anywhere before a giant claw swatted him -_as though I'm just a fly_- and threw the boy against the hard pavement. _Damnit, there's blood in my eyes._ He tried to get up, but within seconds something picked him up._ Damnit! I can't die here!_

Ichigo didn't see Yuzu pass out in the wrecked kitchen, nor did he see the white-haired boy heading in his direction. All he thought, as darkness overtook him, was _Yuzu… Please… Please let her be okay…_

…..

Two minutes earlier, a few streets away

…..

In a small park by the riverside, two small individuals cringed as an animalistic roar echoed in the distance.

"What was that?" Hitsugaya ignored the girl in favor of checking his phone. "Was that a Hollow?" Sure enough, a Hollow was right nearby. _Damn it, I couldn't sense that either._ "Hey! Don't ignore me!" _It's in the area she was in when she was getting harder to sense._

"It's fine." He assured her, "One of my comrades is in the area, the Hollow should-" and as Murphy's law dictated, just as those words left his mouth several more triangles signifying a Hollow's location appeared on the screen just moments before the red dot vanished, showing that the nearby soul reaper was dead. "Damn it!"

_This is the last thing I need to deal with right now, but- wait._ He realized, _If the Hollows are attracted to the strange spiritual energy in this town, then they'll start moving in it's direction. But if _they_ can't find it either,_ He looked over at the child he'd bound, _then they'll go after her. And me, but that won't matter if I stay nearby her._

"What's wrong?" He unsheathed Hyourimaru as the child gestured to his phone with her head. "What's going on? Why- why did you-"

"There are more Hollows coming." The girl squirmed on the ground, desperately trying to escape her bindings.

"What?!" Somehow the girl managed to pull herself into an awkward standing position. "Wait, so you're going to go after it, right? That's your job, right?"

"No." Hitsugaya said bluntly.

"WHAT!"

"There's no need." The young captain responded, "They'll come here. If my spiritual pressure doesn't attract them, then yours will."

"What, so you're using me as bait? Is that it now?" If only the girl would shut up for a second-

"Would you relax? I'm more than capable of defeating a few measly-"

"You're an elementary student! How capable can you be?" Oh for the love of-

"I don't have time for this!" He snarled, "Look, the Hollows are still some three hundred meters to the East," Hitsugaya barely noticed the girl freeze, "so we've got a while until they get here, and since this is a pretty empty lot it's-"

"To the East?" The girl's face expression turned morbid. _I last saw that look on the face of a man who just learned of his lovers death._

"Huh?" _God, don't let it be…_

"Did you just say… East is that way, right?" She nodded in the same direction the Hollows were.

"Well, yes, but-" she started running despite her bound arms, "-you shouldn't-" the child made it into the darkness, "Hey! Get back here!" He flew after her, quickly landing in front of her. _So she _does_ know something, but she doesn't know the importance of whatever information she has._

"Get outta the way!" She kept trying to pass him, despite her impossible situation.

"I told you to-"

The kido broke. It just- shattered.

The girl wrenched her arms apart as though she was being held by human hands instead of solid barriers of energy.

"stay… here…" He spent less than half a second wondering how the hell she'd done that, when the child ran past him. _What the hell? Saying this kid has insane spirit pressure doesn't even come __**close**__ to being accurate! I know that something's wrong here, but still!_ Hitsugaya flash stepped back in front of the girl to block her path once again.

She shrieked at him, "My family lives in that direction!" Of course, how could he have forgotten? Most humans with noticeable reiatsu passed on their power to their offspring. He started racing towards the Hollows.

Within seconds of his departure, Hitsugaya found two huge ape-Hollows, one rummaging through the ruined wall of a house and the other holding a bleeding teenager in its claws. He wasted no time cutting off the hand that gripped the civilian, and then paused for a second to allow the two beasts to notice him and abandon their prey.

_There are less of them than the scanner said there'd be. Damn it, that means the local representative has been eaten already._

It took a few seconds for comprehension to dawn upon the monsters, but once they had forgotten the humans the young captain used a quick flash step to lure them a few yards away from the house. Once they were a good distance away, he quickly beheaded the uninjured Hollow. Before the remaining monster could even blink, it too had been decapitated.

As he sheathed Hyourimaru a gasp could be heard. "Woah…" Oh that's right, the girl was following him. She looked to be in shock at the scene she had just witnessed, _so she probably got here in time to see me finish those two. Wait, she's not breathing very hard, and considering how desperately she was running earlier I'd say she probably saw most of that._ Inwardly, he smirked with pride at the difference in strength between the two.

"And that," A glance told him that the wrecked house also served as the… Kurosaki Clinic, "Kurosaki, is why humans like you need soul reapers, like me, to help you." Okay, so he was flaunting his power, but right now he didn't care. It helped lighten his mood, which had gotten worse as he approached the house. _I can barely sense anything, much less her._

Kurosaki didn't even notice. "Yuzu, Ichigo!" She ran over to her family as best as she could. "They're hurt! Ichigo- my brother's bleeding!"

"It's alright," Hitsugaya strolled over calmly, "Neither one was eaten. They'll be fine."

"Fine!" She shrieked, "My brother's bleeding from the head and you think he's _fine?_"

"Well, in the long run

—"

_Oh._

_There's a sword in my heart._

_Is that Hyourimaru?_

_Somebody stabbed me in the back. With my own Zanpakto._

_I think my heart's been hit. One of my lungs has been pierced, too._

_That's not good._

*Ghack*

…..

The last thirty seconds had to be the second-scariest seconds of Karin's life. Scariest was when she got the news that Mom died, third was when _Oh great, and now I'm going into shock. Stay in the present, Karin_.

First the soul reaper- and as of two minutes ago **yes** she was willing to admit such things existed- killed two hideous beasts attacking her house. Then out of nowhere some guy with a mask teleported right behind the boy and frigging _stabbed him in the chest_, then the guy vanished just like he came.

Karin watched as the ghost before her collapsed. As quickly as she could, the tomboy dashed over to him. "Hey, soul reaper! You- you're all beat up."

"Yeah-" *gasp* "-no-" *wheeze* "-sh-" *cough* "-it" And some bloody vomit to finish it off. But a roar echoed through the night, terrifying both. "Take your siblings-" he panted, "-and run."

_But-_ "What about you?"

"I'll- hold them- off," each break was punctuated by more desperate gasps for air, and the brunette watched in awe as he used his sword to prop himself up. "They- I taste better to them," Karin remembered her purpose, and went to get Ichigo. "so- they'll come- after me- first." She couldn't even pick him up…

"What happens then?" Karin tried to shift Ichigo's weight, but the teenager was just too heavy for her. The ghost boy collapsed against a nearby telephone pole, "Will they leave us alone?" There was no response, confirming to Karin just how stupid this plan was. "Great, I can't even _lift_ my brother, I can't run with both of them!"

"You-have to." Karin switched tactics, instead going for Yuzu and pulling her up piggy-back style. She could pick her twin up, but she could barely walk with the weight.

"We need a new plan!"

"It's- I can't fight like this," But there was no way she was leaving Ichigo for dead, "Your only hope- is to run." More roars sounded, seemingly taunting them _Time is running out_.

By this point Karin had enough. _They're getting closer,_ she realized, _and we're all doomed unless somebody can kill those things…_ "Ichigo…" But her protector was out cold and probably concussed. He'd always been there for her, and she could rely on him to fight for her sake. The one person who Karin had always trusted to protect her was as helpless as she was. With the soul reaper out, there was nothing to stop those things from killing them all.

_No, not quite._ Karin realized, _I'm still awake, aren't I?_

If she couldn't escape with her family, then she might as well do what she could to protect them. _There's no way I'm just leaving either of them for dead, not after Mom died._ The girl put down her sister and dashed over to the soul reaper. _The family's torn apart enough as it is, and I do NOT want to be dad's only kid._

"What are you-" The white-haired boy choked as she tried to grab the sword from him.

_Besides, if this kid can kill monsters, why can't I?_

The tomboy was surprised to find that even half-dead, the not-ghost had a strong grip on his weapon. "Let go!"

"What do you think you're-" another coughing fit broke out, but he held on.

Karin snapped, "Look, much as I'd love to, I _can't_ run away with my family, and you're too beat up to kill a fly. I'm NOT breaking up my family any more than it already is, so you can forget about telling me to save who I can!

"We don't have a car or anything, and even if we did I don't know how to drive. You said I'm attractive to Hollows, so these things would just follow me if I tried to run anyways. The only weapon we've got here is this sword of yours, so just-let-_go_!"

He grappled with her snarling, "Well then, just save yourself!" Karin glared at him.

"There's no way I'm just letting all of you die."

He stopped for a minute. Later Karin would realize that her determination had amazed him, but at the time all she cared about was having the chance to get everyone she loved to tomorrow.

Maybe thirty meters away, the world _rippled_, and a huge ugly frog-like monster with a white mask pulled itself through the air into the real world. Karin turned to watch it start running towards them, surprised by how calm she felt about her upcoming death. _Or maybe reality just hasn't sunk in yet._

"Look, it's now or never, so-"

"Take the blade of my sword," The boy shook it free of her hands and gripped it by the handle, "And drive it through your heart."

"What-"

"_There is no time to explain, just do it!_" In the half second she paused to consider his words some part of her brain told her she was being stupid, he just wanted her to die a quickly, she should have run on her own while she had the chance and escaped with her life. But some deeper part of her said to go along with it, that she _knew_ he wasn't lying.

In a moment of trust unlike any Karin Kurosaki would ever experience again, she did as he said.

…..

There was no moment for uncertainty, no pause for logic or introspection.

One minute, the world saw a powerful young man and a determined human girl staring into each other's eyes for their last minutes alive. The next, Hitsugaya felt a tug as his very essence was pulled away for him. He tried to cling onto his power as it was transferred, but felt himself be washed away by a blinding wave of reiatsu unlike any he'd ever experienced.

She leapt through the air and swung the sword that she now held, instinctively knowing just where the monster she faced was waiting for her. Within seconds it's arm had been cleaved off, and the beast reared back with a roar.

The brunette now wore the full shihakusho, and carried a massive blade that had to be at least four-thirds as long as her legs, and as wide as her fist. With growing horror, the young captain realized that almost all of his powers had been transferred to the human.

Hitsugaya shivered as he watched her behead the Hollow. He clutched the edges of his captain's haori, glad it had not vanished with Hyourimaru and the rest of his uniform.

But as two more Garganta formed, the youth realized that the child's spiritual energy almost matched his _Lieutenant's_.

_I've never heard of a human so powerful._ And as a human, she had potential to grow even more. No human could access their total potential, all they could do was increase the amount of energy in themselves. Kurosaki hadn't even hit the peak of her power, _And I've just given her the ability to actually __**use**__ that energy. I didn't even mean to give her more than half of my power, but somehow she's got nearly all of it!_

As the last Hollow was slain with a well-placed blow to the skull, Hitsugaya couldn't help but think with bitter humor, _I really would have had a relaxing vacation if I'd just stayed at Health Land._ When the initial wave of power wore off and the battle was done, Kurosaki collapsed on the ground, thoroughly worn-out from her fight.

… _Thank god for all the reiatsu rushing through me just now, my wound doesn't seem to be as life-threatening anymore._

"Well well well, what do we have here?"

…..

"_Well, this is quite the surprise." "Hn. This unexpected turn of events… what does it mean for our plans?" "Well well well, what do we have here?"_

…..

…..

AN: I changed the timeline of pre-episode one _Bleach_ like crazy for this story. Rukia isn't the soul reaper in Karakura because I want to keep her alive.

This AU has two main divergences from cannon, one of which has to do with me changing a few key elements in the backstory of _Bleach_ (but these changes all amount to a single larger difference between this and cannon)_._ The other one has never made much of a difference (in-universe) to anyone until the events of this chapter.

I had an idea to focus on Ichigo in the beginning to make it look like the only difference would be that Toshiro replaced Rukia. However that would cut out everything that foreshadows why _Karin_ has become the main character.

I am not very good at fight scenes, but I will try my best.

I do like ToshiroxKarin (it's part of why I started this), but after I began working on this story I realized that I couldn't write it into this work without taking something away from the story itself. ToshiroxKarin will be a running gag (as it is in cannon filler episodes), but the two characters are just too involved in their jobs as soul reapers to pursue any feeling they would develop for each other.

I needed Ichigo to get beaten up because didn't want him to become the substitute instead, and people are more likely to trust random teenagers with dangerous weapons than random children with dangerous weapons, because teenagers are usually more mature, emotionally stronger, and physically larger then children. Therefore, they'd most likely be more capable of fighting untrained. In short: I think a soul reaper would be more likely to give their powers to Ichigo, even if they knew Karin better and thought she had more spiritual power. In retrospect, a healthy Ichigo would be able to carry Yuzu, and would certainly try to save Toshiro.

Stupidly, I initially forgot that Ichigo had a shit-ton of power from the beginning. I had planned on having him switch places with Karin, so then he'd be the kid who's locked out of the loop, but all of his classmates would still go to him for answers (which he can't always provide). Then I began doing research, and I realized that Ichigo and Karin are not as similar as I imagined them, and that Ichigo's power blocked out Rukia's senses for the whole first episode.

Also, I tried to make Karin's Zanpakto smaller than Ichigo's (his would be as wide as his head and as long as he is tall) to show how she has less spirit energy (hers would be about as thick as two of her fists and a few inches longer than her legs). I assumed that the whole "size of sword indicates spiritual energy" would be the size of the sword relative to the height of the soul reaper, otherwise Jidanbo would have sword so small he's lose it.

Wow, I managed to cut the AN's down to one page. And the story itself is now 6056 words long.


	2. Starter

Chapter 2: Starter

"-in" Five more minutes… "Ka-" Wasn't there something important to do today? "-ari-"… No, just school. "…" It felt like there was something important she was forgetting, "-d! Co-" … "ake-" What was it…

"GOOD MORNING CUTE DAUGHTER OF MINE!" Let's see, one nice kick to the head for dad, check.

The eleven-year old now standing on her bed shrieked, "God DAMNIT Dad, IT'S WAY TOO EARLY FOR THIS KIND OF NOISE!" Seeing her twin already awake near the door she added, "And Yuzu! You're the last person I expected to betray me!"

Her angelic sister smiled, "Well sorry Karin, but you wouldn't wake up, and breakfast is almost ready."

"Yeah, yeah, that doesn't mean you have to sic the old man on me!" Giggling the blonde spun on her heels out of their room. The brunette crossed her arms and sighed, "Y'know, sometimes Yuzu can be the scariest of us all."

"Karin, don't talk about your sister that way." The muffled voice of her father sounded, still bent over from when she'd hit him.

"I'm just saying, it's not like she's a real monster or any-" Within an instant, memories of the night before came rushing back into the girl's mind. "Monster." She whispered.

"Huh?"

"Yuzu- she- she wasn't hurt!" Isshin found his suddenly distraught daughter had a grip on the collar of his shirt. "Yuzu- and Ichigo! How's Ichigo doing!"

"Huh? What're you talking about?" This only infuriated her more.

"Don't gimme that crap! Ichigo was bleeding from the head and Yuzu-"

"Ichigo? Your brother's just fine."

"Huh?"

It didn't take long for Karin to learn that her siblings had mysteriously been healed and her family had somehow been convinced that a truck accident was responsible for the damage done to the house. _Wouldn't we have woken up?_ She wondered while Ichigo complained about how much it would cost to repair the house.

_Why is everybody okay? Not that I'm complaining, but where did that soul reaper go? He's probably the one who fixed them up, but how'd he make Yuzu and Ichigo forget the giant monsters? And why does everybody suddenly assume a truck hit the house when there plenty of-_

"Karin, your breakfast is getting cold."

"Ah-coming!"

_I shouldn't worry about it, but I can't shake this feeling that something's not right here._

…..

"'Looks like you could use some help.' That's what you said, and while I thank you for the healing and for retrieving my gigai, you still haven't told me why I'm still here-"

"Patience, patience." Kisuke Urahara walked in from the front room, interrupting the youngest captain before he could work himself into even more of a fury. "Sorry about that, I had some urgent business to take care of." _You really had to be gone for these last few hours?_

Toshiro growled at this. "Why am I still here?" It was morning already, for gods sake! "You said you'd have somebody take care of the humans-"

"The Kurosaki's." The shopkeeper either had no sense of empathy, or he simply chose to ignore Hitsugaya's frustration. "That family is the Kurosaki family, and it's best that you remember that as long as you're tied to one of their daughters." He sighed as he leaned against the wall. "As for why you're still here, I thought I might lend you some advice." Wiley grin failed to impress icy glare.

Hitsugaya snorted, "I'm sure whatever advice you have will be useful only if I needed to buy fifty cans of Hollow repellent." _Half of what goes on here would probably get him executed instantly, why even bother dealing with this man? Oh that's right,_ He glared at the device on the table,_ my phone's being jammed, and I don't have the energy to take on all four at once. Plus, who knows what extra security measures are set up here? And I _still_ don't know why it's so hard to sense spirit energy here._

"Why, you wound me. I'm not _all_ about business, although if you were asking I could get in a shipment-"

"If that's all you have to say, then I'm out of here." Hitsugaya stood up to leave, and for the first time that night Tessai (_That's his name, right?_) didn't move to stop him.

"Now wait just a minute." Shifty eyes met icy ones. "Before you go, I have to ask: What are you going to do now?"

Uncomfortable silence filled the room, the younger unwilling to admit that he hadn't planned that far. Kisuke continued, "The local soul reaper has been taken out, you're supposed to be on vacation-" _How could he know about that?_ "-and you've just given your powers to a human. Most Earth towns could do without a soul reaper representative for a few months before things start heating up. Karakura, on the other hand-"

"Is the largest plot of spiritually enriched land where more than five hundred human souls live. I already know that. Besides which," Hitsugaya's glare narrowed, "What about you? You've clearly got enough resources to protect the town on your own, and seeing as it's _your_ home-"

"I'm much too busy with my shop to go chasing after Wholes and Hollows."

Hitsugaya couldn't help but loose his composure for a second. "Wh- you-" _Busy?_ How many customers did the man get, anyways? And what could be more important than saving innocents?

"Besides which, even if I did have time, what about that girl? Even if you leave her in her body, there's still a chance that when she dies she'll go straight into soul reaper form, instead of becoming a proper Whole. What then?"

"I'm not that irresponsible," the younger man growled, "I was going to wipe her memories of me and sever her soul sleep once I got my powers back."

"Mm. And what then?"

"Then I'd put her back in her body and wipe the memories of our meeting."

"But what about before then? Accidents happen, you know. What if she dies before you've regained your strength?"

Toshiro didn't want to admit it, but the shopkeeper had a point. Without protection, the girl might attract more powerful monsters. Hell, she already had (Or at least _something_ had) and it would only get worse; simply having a soul reaper's soul would increase the amount of reiatsu released.

Sighing, Urhara crossed the room and sat down at the table. As was good manners, Hitsugaya also retook his seat.

"Look, these problems all solve each other." _And your sudden cheerful disposition fills me with dread._ "It's simple, you've got a town that needs protecting, and you've got a kid with the power to protect them. The Kurosaki girl is going to be targeted anyways, and why bother building walls around a town when you can just teach the villagers to wield a spear?

"What I'm trying to say is: have the human you gave your powers to become the temporary protector for this town. You can't remove her powers until you get your own back, and if you try to bring in more soul reapers before then you'll just get yourself arrested. Why not kill two birds with one stone?"

At first, the boy stared at Kisuke with a blank face. Then, surprisingly, he started to- let's not say giggle, although the laughter was quiet that was more because it was repressed than due to any childish features of the young captain. It didn't take long for the laughter to dissipate, and when it did Hitsugaya's face made it clear he thought Kisuke should know better "Are you insane?"

"Sometimes, yes." Urahara admitted. "But I'm dead serious about this."

The younger soul reaper gaped at him. "I can't just recruit a human! It's bad enough one had to fight last night, but that was an emergency! I- It's against everything the Seireitei fights for-"

"Well, in situations like this, it's best to prioritize." Somehow the outlaw's calm demeanor served to make the situation seem even more outlandish. "What's more important, protecting this town, or preserving the innocence of a single human? And bear in mind," He straightened himself to stand up fully, "that 'protecting this town' includes the _collective_ souls of all the humans who will die with unfinished business, all the humans with high levels of spirit pressure, all the Hollows who will show up in this area _and_ all the souls they devoured before coming to town."

Hitsugaya didn't have an answer. All of this was true, yes, but it went against- went against-

_The day Kusaka died, I accepted that what's right isn't what's fair or what 'should be.' I swore to protect the Soul Society, no matter the cost. But… I also swore to uphold the laws of the Seireitei and honor the decisions of Central 46. There's a reason why the Captains of two hundred years ago did what they did. They obeyed the law, even at the cost of their own morality._

_I can't pick and choose which laws to obey and which ones to ignore- I've already shamed my title as Captain enough. To break the law now, when all other choices that should be available- _His eyes narrowed at the shopkeeper, _are no longer possibilities, isn't an option for me._

Sensing that he was loosing the mental battle, Urahara tried again. "Think about it, hasn't the Seireitei _always_ chosen the greater good over all else?"

That… that was true. Every great shame, from the Quincy genocide to the Modsoul incident, Central 46 always put the good of the masses over the good of the individual. And Hitsygaya always followed the orders, unquestioning _because_ he trusted the judges to balance the law, justice and the benefit of the majority.

(Not… really. Central 46 was still made up of elderly, traditional and most often upper-class nobles who'd never held a weapon in their lives. But they were still his superiors, and the Captains were still expected to uphold their orders.)

"So what's it gonna be?" It was more of a challenge than a question, but the youth paid no heed.

If he was Kuchki, if he really truly was willing to follow the law to the letter no matter the consequences, Hitsugaya would have left the shop long ago and called in back home. Consequences aside, he would have turned in the small sweet shop and all it's workers, abandoned the human to be killed or worse, and waited for the execution squad to show up.

_But I'm not Kuchki._ Hitsugaya decided, _and I've worked too hard to die just yet._ (Some small part of him acknowledged that he was also too _proud_ to admit what he'd done, that he might not be executed but he couldn't stand the thought of demotion.)

"Thank you for your advice." There was no need to give a criminal the pleasure of knowing if his words had any impact. He probably knew anyways, as Hitsugaya was allowed to leave without compliant.

Hitsugaya began to leave, but Urahara spoke in a much darker tone.

"I have one more thing to tell you."

He considered the pros and cons of staying before deciding that he might as well listen to what the man had to say. "Yes?"

"There is… a reason why that particular girl has so much spirit energy." He waited. "I know what that reason is." _Are you going to tell me or are we going to sit here all night?_

"You can come in, now!" Urahara called to someone outside the shop. The door opened, and Hitsugaya twisted-

"It's been a long time." _Traitor._ "Can we talk?" _Like hell!_

"I suppose some introductions are in order." Urahara cut in, as Shiba Isshin sat down. "This is Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro of the Tenth division, and this is Kurosaki Isshin, owner of Kurosaki clinic, father of three."

_Wait, Kurosaki?_ A broken sign flashed through his memory. "So the girl's not human, I take it?"

"Well, physically speaking-"

"Her mother was." Shi- _no, Kurosaki. It's Kurosaki now._ "I was in a gigai when she was conceived, so the composition of her soul is human."

"Forgive me if I'm not exactly educated on the biology of hybrids." He snarled, "It wasn't exactly covered in the academy."

"Oh it's nothing to worry about!" Urahara laughed, "I checked out all the kids when they were born, I'd know if something was wrong! With that," _Why are you still smiling?_ "What he means is that the kids were born with nothing more than an affinity for soul reaper abilities."

"An affinity?" Hitsugaya was careful to look neither curious nor confused.

"It really shouldn't have meant anything. The extra spiritual power isn't so much the result of soul reaper nature as it is the result of, well, Shiba genetics." He nodded at Shi- Kurosaki. "After death, it's pretty much guaranteed that all three will develop Zanpakto, so long as a Hollow doesn't get them. While they're alive, their 'affinity' means that- well, they won't just develop any special abilities, but if someone offers their abilities- well, I think you already know."

Hitsugaya remembered when he performed the ritual, how he'd gone into it with a clear idea of what abilities the girl needed to kill the Hollow. The loss of control, as though he wasn't strong enough-

_No,_ he realized, eying his former commander._ Kurosaki was pulling too hard. She wasn't trying to, but some part of her must have recognized my ability, and thought it was her own. Otherwise, I would have been able to control the outcome._

On the other hand, this 'affinity' was probably the reason the girl survived the ritual…

"Enough of that." Cap-Kurosaki said. "That's not what we're here to talk about."

_Oh great… _"Let me guess, your children know so little about the spirit world you clearly haven't told them anything. And you want me to keep your secret not only from my superiors, but from your family as well."

He expected a witty response from either man, but neither one spoke. Shi-Kuro-_Shiba_ eventually sighed and got down to business.

"I'm going to start with a story. The story of how I met my late wife."

…..

By the time school rolled around Karin had almost managed to forget all the trouble she'd been through earlier. In fact, she was in English class when she noticed something felt… off. _It's as though… Nah._ About half an hour passed before the door slammed open and a very exasperated boy spoke.

"Is there a Kurosaki in **this** class?"

Sure enough, in all his white-haired glory there was the same soul reaper from last night, now dressed in the same black polo and tan pants Karin had first met him in. _FML._ No, there was no way Karin could just return to her daily life and resume her eternal quest to be less uncool than her family. Weirdness just had to follow.

Not that Mrs. Kato noticed. "Why yes, are you a-"

"No, thank you, goodbye." Much to Karin's enjoyment, the door was slid shut once more. She thought the whole class could hear the next door opening and the question being repeated.

Thank god that had turned out to be one of those problems where- "YOU!" The door almost came off it's hinges, it opened so fast. The boy pointed at her and roared, "I'VE BEEN IN FIVE KID'S SCHOOLS THUS FAR, AND YOU JUST _HAD_ TO ATTEND THIS ONE?"

Oh, that was it._ How DARE he humiliate me like this? Doesn't he know I'm in CLASS?_ "HEY, IT'S NOT MY FAULT I'M HERE, AND WHY THE HELL WERE YOU LOOKING FOR ME ANYWAYS!"

"SHUT UP!" He started walking towards her, fury in his eyes. "If that stupid shopkeeper had just told me where to find you this would have been _so_ much easier!"

"What shopkeeper? And why are you following me, anyways!"

"Karin Kurosaki!" Mrs. Kato finally decided to speak up, "If you want to talk to your friend, you may do it after classes are over! And I will not tolerate such foul language!"

Eventually the soul reaper had agreed to wait outside until school was over before he spoke with Karin. It would have been a lot easier if he hadn't insisted on seeing her right away, but once he heard that he could enroll here (a topic that came up when one of the teachers asked the kid why he wasn't in class) he'd happily joined the principal in his office.

Karin didn't actually see him until after school let out, though. She'd just left the building when she heard him.

"Hey."

The tomboy froze, almost afraid to look behind her and confirm her fears. "Oh no." she muttered.

"My thoughts exactly." He'd responded, now walking towards her.

"Shouldn't you be back in the afterlife, or wherever it is you come from?"

He glared at her for some reason. "I can't, idiot."

"Why you-"

"Last night I transferred all my powers to you." She blinked. Well, that was unexpected.

"What are you talking about?"

"My sword, remember? You thrust it into your heart while I poured my spiritual power into it." Flashes of last night, of feeling an amazing rush of power and of decapitating- _Is that what had happened?_

"Oh." It certainly explained a lot. Those last few minutes Karin had thought to have been an actual dream. The soul reaper flipped open his phone and began walking away. Karin followed him, unsure of why she was doing so.

"So now my powers are yours. Likewise, so are my responsibilities, and-" Hold on.

"Wait, responsibilities? You never said any of that!"

"We didn't exactly have time." He glared at her. "You're family was in danger, I was unable to fight, and you have enough spiritual energy that I thought you might have a better chance of using my power correctly than say, your sister."

"Yeah but, I mean," She couldn't just drop everything to be a psychopomp-slash-demon hunter. "I'm still in elementary school, couldn't you just take your powers back?" He stayed quiet. "Or, is that where we're going? Somewhere private so you can get your powers back?" No response. _I'll take that as a yes. Wishful thinking sometimes is accurate._ They were behind the school by then. "I don't have that sword, so unless you took it-"

Without so much as a warning, the soul reaper spun around and all Karin saw was a flash of blue and red, maybe a flaming skull, and suddenly she wasn't holding her soccer ball anymore.

"What the hell…" Looking down, the eleven year old noticed that all her clothes were gone, and had been replaced by a black kimono like the one the soul reaper had been wearing last night. Looking behind her, she saw herself laying unmoving on the ground. "Is- is that-"

"You're fine." The boy snapped. "This is the same state you were in last night, you've temporarily left your body." Karin watched as he pulled it into a ditch between the school and the field. "It should be fine, so long as nobody disturbs it."

"Hey, what do you mean, 'fine'!" She snarled as she regained her senses, "That-that's my body! And what was that about last night-"

"Follow me."

"Are you even listening?"

"We can talk while we walk, now come on!"

…..

If Toshiro Hitsugaya hadn't long since developed serious doubts about his decision, he certainly would have developed them by now. It was only a fifteen minute walk to the park, and Kurosaki had insisted on asking countless questions.

Thus far they'd covered: "Where are we going?" "How can my body live without me in it "Why didn't that person see me?" "Wait, so why can they see you?" "I can FLY?" (this was after tripping off a stairwell he'd easily jumped over) "Are we there yet?" ?" "Why do you keep looking at your phone?" "Wait, so if that thing shows where spirits are, what are we tracking now?" "Wait, how'd you get me out of my body?" "How do you use that on yourself?" "So what you're saying is I need help leaving my body behind because it's _my_ body and not just some fake, or because your gigi ("Gigai!") is fake and therefore easy to leave?" "Are you going to have me give you back your powers or what?"

He'd considered refusing to answer the last one, until he realized the longer he put it off the longer she'd be under the impression that being a soul reaper was just something she could just talk her way out of. He then explained calmly that no, the transfer only worked from soul reaper to human, and besides which it would probably kill her to return his power the same way. "Because think about it. You'd be a soul, outside of your body, without a chain of fate connecting you to it." The girl shuddered at that.

"I can remove my powers from your body without killing you." Well, probably. Most could survive having their Hakusui and Saketsu severed, and theoretically speaking there would be a short period of time between the loss of power and Kurosaki's reversal to a purely human soul. If her body was nearby, he could easily put her back in it before she died, and from there the child would be free to live a normal human life. "But only once my own powers have returned."

The girl hummed in response. "And how long will that take?" They were there. "Hey, why'd you stop?"

"Over there." The prodigy pointed down an alley. They had gone downtown, and when the girl walked passed the dumpster she noticed the Whole cowering behind it.

He sighed as she began talking to it, suddenly desiring small talk from some random spirit over the company of the ghost whose power she'd stolen. "You have to help him pass on." Hitsugaya snapped. God, was this girl really so stupid she'd forgotten what he'd already told her?

"Hey, don't I get a say in this?" The Whole tried to interrupt but the soul reaper only cared about the response of his substitute.

"Wait, you mean that whole psychopomp thing?" She looked at the spirit next to her. "How?"

"Take the butt of your sword and press it to the Whole's forehead." He instructed her as slowly as possible, imagining that he was explaining this to a two year old. "That should activate the konso ritual, and help the Whole pass on."

Slowly, almost unsure of herself, Kurosaki did as she was told. Despite the spirit's protests he closed his eyes and faded into the ground, where a hell butterfly arose to deliver his soul.

"Wow…" The girl sighed, completely relaxed and in awe of the miracle. A though life was that simple, and her insistence upon waiting hours to complete her duties hadn't already gotten several souls devoured by nearby Hollows.

"Ready for the next one?" For now, Hitsugaya had decided to allow her to continue with a few more konso's before he led her to the Hollow. It'd be more effective in showing her what this life is really like if the child was getting comfortable with her new job before she realized that there were more monsters to be slain.

"Huh?"

"There are more Wholes in the area, just waiting to pass on." After a moments consideration she decided to try again.

"Isn't there someone else who could-" But the captain wouldn't let the child finish.

"There were several people," He slowly deliberated, "but as of last night, most of the ones in this area are dead now," From the look in her eyes, Kurosaki seemed to realize then _why_ he had suddenly prepared to defend her the other day. "And I gave my power to you."

It took her a minute, but eventually the child decided to accept her new job. Although he did hear murmurs of, "If I'd _known_ you were going to make me do this last night, then-"

At that Hitsugaya felt it best to channel the rage that had been building up with _every single ignorant word_ she spoke. _Well, fine._ He stopped listening, and in doing so barely managed to keep his temper under control. _If she wants to play, then I'll show her 'fun and games.'_

Right now, there wasn't a Hollow nearby which he could conveniently lead her towards. The prodigy used his phone to locate the nearest whole, and began heading it it's direction, leaving the substitute to either follow him or go home. He decided to keep up the konso duty for now, and once a Hollow did show up-

_This is not a game, girl. You'll see that, or you'll die._

There was a long pause. Hitsugaya briefly wondered what Kurosaki was thinking as she grumbled behind him.

…..

_Could he be more overdramatic?_

She'd gone with him to a few more places with spirits, eventually going to the hospital and morgue (which would henceforth be a daily trip for Karin until she managed to complete the job forced upon her). It had taken oven an hour and a half to get this far, and Karin was more than ready to call it quits and head home. The sooner this job was done, the better.

_I guess soccer practice will be put on hold until this has all blown over…_ The tomboy mourned her lost free time. Not that there was much she could do about it; the soul reaper had saved her life, so it was only natural that she paid him back. _That doesn't make it suck any less._

Meanwhile, the white-haired kid in front of her had been checking his phone. She noticed that the last alarm was different from the other ringtone that had been playing every time they got near a Whole.

"Only one stop left." About time. "Over here."

He nodded at a landfill in front of them. "What, this place? What kind of dead spirit lives here?" She started to search for the lonely spirit, but the soul reaper held her back.

"Don't let your guard down." He stared straight ahead. "You don't want to be caught off guard." What was this guy talking about? But her companion ignored her, instead watching the landfill as though he expected it to attack them.

Karin sighed and shifted her sword to her shoulder. _What are we waiting for? If something doesn't happen soon-_

No sooner had fate been tempted then a mound of garbage exploded a few yards away. Emerging from the wreckage was a large worm-like Hollow with tentacles. Caught by surprise, Karin screamed (not a very shrill scream, nor a girlish one. More like the noise the hero's best friend makes when they get killed off in an action movie. She hoped.) "What the hell-"

"Stay on your guard!" Wha- _When did that midget move like, twenty feet behind me?_ "It's headed this way, be prepared to fight it when it get's here!"

"Yeah, easy for you to say, you're all the way over there!"

"In front of you!" Karin managed to dodge just in time, and the worm-Hollow crashed into the ground behind her. _How the hell did that thing manage to jump ten feet up like that? It's a freaking worm!_

The moment her feet touched solid ground, Karin leapt back towards the monster and with a roar managed to cleave it in half. Within seconds the beast evaporated, and the elementary student touched ground easily. The nearby boy smirked, which only served to enrage her.

She hollered, "And where THE HELL were you when I was fighting that thing?!"

"Don't be stupid, without any powers I'd only get in the way." How dare he just brush her off so nonchalantly!

"Yeah, well you still could have warned me!" Karin pointed at him "You knew that thing was coming, didn't you?"

"Of course I did."

She growled, "Then why the hell didn't you warn me?" She could have been killed!

"This one was pretty weak. I figured you didn't need a warning." That made no sense!

"Even if it's not strong, I'd still like to know it's there! You didn't even tell me what we were doing! How was I supposed to know-"

"You weren't." The expression on his face changed, and Karin was reminded of the old veterans that sometimes came to the clinic for check-ups, whenever they had to expose an old battle scar. "I expected you to kill it, but I wanted you to be caught off guard." _What?_ "You need to understand that this job is dangerous. There are plenty of Hollows stronger than the ones that attacked your family, and although the truly powerful ones rarely show up in this world, you still need to be prepared for whatever does come to this town.

The boy explained, "I'd rather have you be scared and alive than underestimate your opponent and die. That thing's weak enough I'd step in if I have to, so you weren't in as much danger as you'd usually be in. But I want you to understand- no, you need to understand that this. Is. Dangerous. Plenty of soul reapers die at the hands of ordinary Hollows, and a number die not because they face a foe more powerful than them, but because they underestimate their opponent. So you can kill a ten foot tall monster? That's great. But it doesn't mean you should bull-rush the one that towers over your house. Besides which,"

His expression changed to one of condescension, "you keep on complaining about how you don't want to do this. And that's fine, no one should be _forced_ to put their life on the line for anything. But unfortunately, neither you nor I can change what's happened. If you die before my powers return, or if you refuse to perform the duties of a soul reaper, then this town will become overrun with Hollows, and the souls of all who have died here will all be forfeited and devoured. If you are only willing to fight for your loved ones, or those who happen to be attacked when you're nearby, then you might as well not be fighting Hollows at all, since so few will 'just happen' to be somewhere you can easily get to. Eventually more powerful Hollows will realize that there isn't anyone guarding this area, and they'll start coming here. And those ones will know to target humans with high levels of spirit pressure. You and your family will be targets, and then you _will_ be forced to fight, but by then it will be too late." Was… was this- this job- was it really that serious?

"Understand, Karin Kurosaki." The soul reaper glared at Karin, and somehow it made the girl feel very, very small even as he told her just how important she was. "That until I get my powers back, every day you will have to fight, and do so understanding that each battle could kill you. You have to be willing to make sacrifices, or you _will_ wind up dead."

It wasn't until then that Karin truly realized, _This is really happening. I hadn't thought about it before, not even while we were going around exorcizing all those ghosts, but just guiding souls to the afterlife is a huge duty. Everybody knows about it; life and death have to go in a cycle._

_Fuck this._

"I want out." Okay, she wasn't even trying to sound tough. _Don't care._

"Too late." The boy said. "Trust me, if there were another way-" he hesitated, but not long enough for Karin to pick up on it, "I would have taken it."

"I don't care." She said, "I'm not doing this." She stormed back to the school- or would have, but he called after her.

"Did you forget what I just said?" _Ignoring you._ "If you abandon your duties, then this town will fall."

That got her attention. _Crap! He said something about that, didn't he? Crap, what did he say? What do I say? Crap! Spirit's aren't my- wait!_

"I have this brother, Ichigo-"

"-Who is human. And who you _can't_ transfer your powers to." The boy got closer to her until they were an arms length away.

"Why not? Look, the guy messes around with ghosts and stuff all the time, he'd be thrilled if he could actually send them to the other side instead of just being moral support."

"You don't understand," He sighed, "That ritual I performed when I gave my powers to you, it requires a level of skill and self-control that takes years, if not _decades_ to develop. I'll regain my own abilities far quicker."

That- was a good argument. "But-" _There _has_ to be a way out of this mess!_

"I know it's sudden, and I know it's scary." The boy shifted, and tried to look less intimidating. "But you're not alone. I'll be there to teach you, and you can still attend to the basics of your human life. It's crucial that you understand how much is at stake here because _if_ you act recklessly, you'll… be in trouble."

_Be dead._

"Still…" Karin began. _Look, he wouldn't have dragged you into this if he had another option._ "I…"

The boy put a hand on her shoulder. "We can talk on the way back."

…..

"Thanks for the warning." Karin said, much later, when they were almost at the school. She was already resigned to this mess, but at least now she understood a little bit more about just how big her new duty was._ Heh, and to think there are some people who would give anything to be part of something greater than themselves._

"Good." The boy turned around and began walking away, "Then I'll expect to see you tomorrow morning at that hill where we met." Huh? "Meet me at seven o'clock, bright and early."

"W-wait a minute!"

He paused, "Is something wrong?"

"Whattya mean 'Is something wrong' I've got school tomorrow!"

"Oh?" He turned, "I thought you agreed to help?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I'm willing to give up my whole life!" She yelled, her passion now returning in full force. "Look, I understand if you need help, and if there's a Hollow in town then I'll- I don't know," How do people skip class? _Stupid Ichigo for never teaching me how to be a delinquent. Not that he ever seems to skip class himself._ "I'll ask to go to the nurse and then go fight it while I'm gone, but I can't just hang around all day waiting for spirits! People die all the time!"

The boy had become annoyed enough to snap back, "Well then how else are you going to perform your duties? I'm already giving you time off to be with your family, you should be thankful as it is!" Why that little-

"Okay, first of all, there's more to my life than just my home, I have to go to school or else they'll call my dad. And second, why do the spirits have to pass on right away? I can just pretend I've gone to sleep early and then leave my body in bed, sneak out, go help all the dead people pass on and then come home with no one the wiser!" Her body still breathed when she wasn't in it, right? Like a mini-coma, only she could control when it ended.

He sighed, "Well, I guess that'll work, but you still need training. There's more to fighting than just swinging your sword, and that thing was one of the weakest."

"Hey, I did alright last night. Three down in my first battle, isn't so bad, is it?"

For some reason the white-haired boy felt the need to screech, "Last night you were reacting to suddenly gaining new power! Your soul was pumped with new energy- you won't be in a state of energetic hyperactivity again!"

Energetic what now? "You lost me."

Hand, meet forehead. "Grah- Think of it like a sudden rush of adrenalin. Only three times as powerful, and if adrenalin only activates when you learn new methods of utilizing your spiritual energy. You passed out after those Hollows were killed, remember?"

She did, it was part of why the whole even had seemed so unrealistic. "Yeah, so?"

"So usually that doesn't happen, the only reason you fainted-"

"I don't faint!" _Fainting is for prissy girls, or spoiled princesses who can't handle seeing spiders._

He ignored her, "-Was because you weren't in danger anymore. Your soul absorbed a ton of new abilities at a time when your life was about to end, so it reacted strongly, giving you greater focus, shutting down your pain receptors, telling your muscles to work harder." Well, that kind of made sense… "Plus, any transfer of power rushes through both the giver and the recipient, so your soul was made fully alert by the sensation of being totally-" _Enough_ _already_.

"Okay, that's all well and good, but I really don't care."

"Hey, I wasn't finished-"

"What I want to know is what exactly our plan is." _Hey, you if keep cutting me off, it's only natural I return the favor._ "I can't just stop going to school, and I can't spend all my time on duty. I'm willing to work out with you if that's what you want, but I can't put my life on hold if it's not an emergency."

Her speech seemed to do the trick, as boy gave in with a sigh. "Fine, we've covered all of the Wholes that the system can pick up on. Tomorrow, I want to see you on the hill where we first met, as soon as your school gets out."

"Fine by me."

He seemed to consider something. "Listen, before we part ways, there's some basic information you should know about Hollows."

"Eh?" She frowned, "Find, slay, go home. What else is there to know?"

"A lot of stuff I just realized you probably don't know about but should know ahead of time, before you find out the wrong way. Honestly, I'm not going to tell you anything that you don't need to know, and that you wouldn't be able to find out on your own.

"First of all- and let me explain this fully- all Hollows used to be human souls."

_What!_

He quickly continued, "All the Hollows you killed did pass on after you killed them. The reason why we use Zanpakto to fight Hollows is because Zanpakto have a natural 'purifying' ability, that erases all the memories the soul has of being a Hollow. More importantly, it changes a Hollow back into a regular human soul, then it fastracks both the former Hollow's soul _and_ all the souls of the Hollow's victims to the afterlife. In shot, once you've slain a Hollow with you sword, it and all the souls it's devoured are allowed to pass on. Don't think they're not dangerous, a Hollow is born when a whole stays in the human world for too long, and eventually looses themselves to despair."

Karin swallowed, "Okay… I think I get where you're coming from."

"Are you able to go on with this information?"

She nodded, "Yes… I mean, if the soul's all get to move on, then it's not really killing them, is it? Nobody actually gets hurt, and the Hollow wouldn't even suffer from guilt in the afterlife 'cause they wouldn't even know they ever were a Hollow at all." She tried to grin, but failed miserably. "Sound's like a good deal to me."

The soul reaper nodded. "Good. There's more you should know about, but I think that's the most troubling information I'm going to give you."

"Well then, I'm all ears." Her fake enthusiasm might have fooled a toddler, but no one else would believe the girl wanted to hear more.

"To remove your powers, I'm going to have to stab you again. I'm pretty sure I know someone who can sell anesthetic, so you won't actually be in that much pain during the procedure, but you will feel something when you lose your powers."

"Well… if it gets me back to normal…"

"And another thing, this probably didn't register, so I'm going to explain it slowly: Every Whole that doesn't get a Konso performed on it will eventually become a Hollow."

"But, my brother knows lots of spirits-"

"The process takes time. Months, years, it differs. But all Wholes _will_ eventually become Hollows."

"Oh… so you guys must put a lot of effort into helping as many spirits pass on before then as possible, right?"

From the way he cringed, Karin had a sinking suspicion that such was not the case. "That… would be the smart thing to do, yes." _But you didn't say that you psychopomp guys actually do that._ "Moving on, technically when you leave your body, you're dead. Even though it can survive on it's own for a long time if _you_ left it alone, it's technically not breathing." Karin whimpered. "Your body won't decay if you leave it properly, like you've done now, but it will be in what you'd call a constant state of recently dead. So if anyone finds it, they might think it's a corpse, or at best call a doctor to try to revive you with CPR."

"Ah…" was all she could muster. This was a lot to think about, _though in the long run I can see why it'd be better to learn about this stuff now rather than later. Imagine if someone called Yuzu and told her I was dead, that'd suck._ At the moment, such was the only positive thought in Karin's mind. There was a lot to process, and the soul reaper hadn't softened anything for her. Eventually she meekly asked "Anything else I should know?"

"You have a lot to learn about fighting, with your current level of skill you're more likely to hurt yourself. We're going to start with the basics, and once you know enough I _may_ consider teaching you one or two basic techniques I know."

As the two began the long trek back to the school where her body lay, Karin had one thought in mind. _Man, I just know that I'm gonna regret this._

…..

…..

AN: Yay! Another chapter done!

Wow you guys, I didn't expect to get any reviews yet! Thank you! I have to warn you- I am a slow writer, and I've been writing this story for months before I posted it. I had three chapters finished (and therefore there will be less last-minute editing for these) before I published the first chapter, so I've decided to put up the first three chapters quickly. Then I'll return to my normal writing pace, which will be much longer. But thanks so much for the support!

When I started this AU, it was hard to think of all the changes that would be made with the different characters. Since during the first arc of_ Bleach_ almost everything is manipulated from behind the scenes, what I have to change is less of the events, and more how people are convinced/pressed to take certain actions. Plot-wise, there isn't a lot of room for changes early on. Karin listens when Toshiro tells her to help her family (at first), since he's already shown her that he knows what he's doing and she _wants_ to believe him when he says he'll be alright.

High school is easier to get out of (if you make the right entrance- Toshiro was also too stubborn and had better control over his fear, so he got more upset with Urahara and it took longer for them to talk, and they did so on more hostile grounds, hence Urahara didn't get a chance to tell Toshiro where to find Karin), so Rukia can bring Ichigo to the Hollow attack in the park. Karin does not feel the need to defy authority as strongly as Ichigo does, and as such she doesn't correct anything in Toshiro's speech or talk back or have her own speech after his. Toshiro also convinces Karin by telling her that if she doesn't help now she'll only make her own life miserable in the long run (which also has something to do with the speech Urahara gave him earlier, about the greater good), while Rukia tells Ichigo that all lives are equal and each individual deserves to be saved. At first Toshiro tries this tactic, but Karin freaks out _because_ of the responsibility. Toshiro thought that this was because she's so young, but actually, I think it's part of her personality to avoid going out of her way like this, and when all of this responsibility was forced on her at once she freaked out. And naturally, the biggest change so far, Toshiro recognizes Isshin- which would have happened sooner or later. Originally, Urahara told neither one the other was in town, and Isshin encountered Toshiro sleeping on his roof. It was rewritten a few times, before I realized that Urahara would rather have Toshiro (and Isshin) learn a secret that obvious and easily discovered on his own terms.

Most of the first arc will work like this: The individual events for each episode are set off at the same time and are the same, but how they are dealt with may or may not be slightly different.

Lots of text this chapter! Does anyone remember chapter/episode 2 of Bleach, where Rukia gives Ichigo this big talk about why he has to be a soul reaper? I tried to convey the same thing here, but with different people and without anyone being attacked. Which is good, because Karin doesn't have the passionate desire to protect other that Ichigo has, so she wouldn't have a good answer to a breaking speech that covered the same bases (protection, all souls being equal, can't save one without saving all, ect.) Cannon!Rukia's speech does. This is also the real reason as to why Toshiro has to search for Karin, while Rukia knew just where to find Ichigo. I wanted to avoid that situation, so I changed the time and place the big speech happened. That kid being chased by a Hollow? Well… in this universe, he'll get to the soul society eventually… once the Hollow is killed… If a Quincy doesn't get it…

Originally, the scene between Urahara and Toshiro wasn't there, but I came up with the idea later and wrote it in. What you didn't see was that Toshiro is then surprised to find out that Karakura has more than one elementary school. From there he figures he can just look at the list of students in a school, find out if Karin's there, and go home. Unfortunately, the list of students is either kept online or in the principals office, and random children aren't allowed to see either. Now sleep exhausted and very frustrated, he begins going into each classroom, checking to see if Karin's there, and leaving when she's not. Needless to say, by the time he does find Karin, he's very, very, _very_ annoyed.

I want the big, conditional power-ups to be mostly consistent with cannon (like the Hollow's first emergance and re-gaining soul reaper powers) but the personal skills will differ (like skill in kendo). For example, Toshiro will train Karin using more conventional methods then just saying "pop only the balloons with the hands", though he'll have some of that, he's had more experience dealing with those of lower skill levels and knows more about teaching. However, cannon!Ichigo _does_ have more stamina, experience (in street fights) and weight, so he has a bonus. As such, if Cannon!Ichigo vs Fanfic!Karin dueled at the end of the Karakura arc (right before losing their powers) it would be a tie.

A bit on the characterization: at first, the reason why Karin is willing to go along with Toshiro is because she doesn't fully understand all of the implications of her decision. Ichigo knew right off the bat that agreeing to help Rukia means fighting lots more monsters, and that he could easily get killed by one of them. If you had asked her, Karin would say that she knows she'll fight more monsters, but she wasn't thinking about it when she began doing konso's, and she hadn't really thought about getting killed by a Hollow. Even after this chapter, she's still underestimating the amount of danger a soul reaper is in, so she agrees without really knowing what she's getting into. Now she's not underestimating as much, but she still doesn't expect to die.

Just read Bleach 540. This saves a lot of time, now I don't have to think up a new Zanpakto avatar! I do have to think up a new name, though… I noticed that Engetsu and Zangetsu are similar in name, so I figured some aspect of the Zanpakto ran in the blood or something. We'll probably get more explanations later, but for now I'm just going to keep the appearance the same. If it turns out the name is also tied in with the appearance deal, I'll keep that name the same as well. For now, I think I'll just go with the whole double-meaning phases of the moon deal.

Reviews:

Ultimate Black Ace: Thanks for the warning. I haven't done much editing, since I'm trying to get these chapters up quickly, but I'll work on a way to make the flashbacks less chaotic. Also, those aren't flashbacks- they are events that are happening as the story is progressing. The ones at the beginning happened no more than a month before the story started, but chronologically the rest of them occur between or during the scenes they are sandwiched between.

forever122: Er, sorry, but the rescue arc is kinda crucial to the plot. Also, too many smart people are manipulating events for the rescue arc to _not_ happen. I do, however, plan to have the soul reaper reactions to the execution be different (neither Momo nor Matsumoto are Renji), and like Rukia, I can tell you now that Toshiro won't die.

Guest: Part of the basis for this story is that all of Ichigo's individual powers are the result of his genetics, and therefore his sisters have the potential to access those same powers. But don't worry about Ichigo. Initially, I had planned for him to replace Karin, but I came up with a much better idea for Ichigo. It's not very original, but it _will_ put him in a central role of the story.


	3. Hello, you

Chapter 3: Hello, you

"_Sister… I wish I could talk to you."_

"_This thing is getting shorter every day, it's kind of frightening. I can't help but wonder if I'll disappear once all of the chain is gone."_

"_Almost none- grah! What's happe- Ah! Ah, ah, AAAAAHHH__**HHHHH!**__"_

…..

So far, Karin had spent less than a week as a substitute soul reaper, and so far it had been the weirdest week of her life. Breakfast was uncomfortable as hell, if for no other reason than because Karin kept expecting her family to start saying things like "I wonder if 'demon rampage' will be covered by the insurance company."

Speaking of the supernatural, once again her daily routine had been interrupted by the soul reaper. At least this time he'd been considerate enough to just knock on the door to get Karin's attention instead of bursting in like he's done yesterday. Although today after (during) school the spirit had insisted that they 'start with the basics' and had her doing drills for hours. (Okay, maybe not that long, but he'd ordered her to meet him later after she'd checked in with her family.)

"My darling children!" Although she'd take monsters over this creep any day. _Hollows I'm at least allowed to kill._ "I want you all to gather around!"

Karin scoffed, "There's only two of us home right now." _Ichigo's late again…_

"There's someone I want you to meet!" Her father cheerfully ignored her. "An old friend of mine asked me to take care of his son while he's on a trip abroad!" He turned his head to yell at the stairwell, "Come on out, so the girls can meet you!"

"I thought I told you not to address me like that." No… it couldn't be…

_It is. Fuck._ Out came the soul reaper, calmly strolling towards them like he had every right to be here. Karin's jaw dropped, as her oblivious family thought there was nothing off about their new guest._ How the hell did he-_

"He's going to be sharing a room with Ichigo, so I want you all to do your best to treat him like another brother!" It wasn't that difficult to dupe the idiot that Karin called dad, but this was ridiculous! Who on Earth would just drop a kid off, and what kind of friends did her dad have anyways? He had the mind of a six year old!

Yuzu smiled and bowed to the soul reaper. "Hello, I'm Yuzu! It's nice to meet you!"

He nodded "Likewise."

"This is my sister, Karin." Yuzu smiled at her sister, "Karin and I-"

By then the substitute had enough. She grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him away, ignoring the protests of both her family and of the soul reaper. The girl didn't stop until the two of them were out of the house, then she spun around and yelled,

"Alright, what have you done to my dad?!"

"Calm down."

"Calm down!" Rage lit up in the girl's eyes like fire, "What the hell! Look, I don't know what you did to my dad, but you un-do it now!"

"No."

"Why the hell not?!"

"Because otherwise I don't have anywhere to stay."

"So what?"

"What do you man 'so what'?"

"Exactly what I said." "Why should I have to give up my house just 'cause you didn't think this through?"

"Quit talking like I'm holding an invasion," "it's not like I'm going to be sleeping in your closet or anything, we'll just be living under the same roof for a little while."

"That's no excuse to- to- do whatever you did to my Dad to make him think he knew you."

"Relax, I haven't done anything to hurt him."

"Good."

The soul reaper waited a few minutes before pushing himself up. "If that's your only concern-"

"It's not." "Why do you have to stay here?"

"Can you sense Hollows?" She shook her head. "Then how do you expect to fight them when you don't know where to find them?"

"Wouldn't you tell me?"

"I have to be near you to give you information. This way, we kill two birds with one stone; I have somewhere to eat, and you can get to the Hollows faster, preferably before they start killing innocent Wholes." "Any complaints?"

"Why didn't you just have me introduce you as a homeless classmate? I'm sure my Dad would've swallowed the story, and it had to be easier than whatever you did to him."

"If that's all, then let's go back inside."

Karin sighed, somehow she knew this wasn't going to end well. "Why couldn't I get stuck with a hamster or something?"

…..

It had been decided that Hitsugaya would be rooming with the eldest Kurosaki child, a teenager named Ichigo. Ichigo was rather miffed about having to share personal space with another, but at least he was considerate enough not to blame Toshiro for the situation.

They lived together in a harmony of mutual tolerance; on an average day, the two of them barely exchanged more than a few words. Occasionally Ichigo would be awake when a Hollow attacked, but Toshiro had the foresight set his pager to vibrate at night, and would pretend he had to use the bathroom before silently sneaking into the twin's room.

It only took the young men a day to settle into this system, and by the end of the second day Hitsugaya had decided that he could live quite comfortably with the child. He had also figured out that Ichigo was the source of the powerful spirit energy that had blocked his senses, but with the knowledge of the Kurosaki's lineage the revelation wasn't so surprising.

It went something like this:

Hitsugaya was alone in the room and working on some paperwork Matsumoto had texted him. Currently, his senses were somewhat dulled by the strong presence, but he at least could concentrate without getting a headache.

"I'm out of the bath." Ichigo called out from the hallway.

"What? Ichigo, you took one without me?" The other girl (Yuzy, right?) seemed somewhat bothered._ Damn it, a typo._

"Are you stupid?" The teen snorted, "You're eleven, you can take a bath alone." _I'll wait until it's quiet again._

"Ichigo, you've gotten so cold since you entered high school."

The blanket of spiritual energy took a small hike, and Toshiro realized something. _This increase is tuned-_ "No, I haven't." -_into Kurosaki's emotions._

The door opened, and Hitsugaya 's suspicion was confirmed by the way the energy became more potent. It didn't actually increase, it just became clearer to the young captain. _As though the source somehow is closer to me than it was before._

Hitsugaya pondered this for a minute, then went back to typing. _Even if he is half-human, a child of a noble line still has powerful blood._

They spent about ten minutes in silence before the soul pager went off. It was already open, so Hitsugaya could easily see-

"Kurosaki!" he bolted upright.

Ichigo dropped his book. "What-!"

"Move!"

The two of them barely made it, but Hitsugaya was able to push the human out of the way before a monstrous claw tore through the bed. It took little time for Ichigo to spot the beast-

("What the hell is that thing!")

-before they had to move again to avoid being hit by the Hollow's tail.

_Karin must have recognized the Hollow's roar._ The soul reaper was relieved to see his substitute in the doorway, and he wasted no time running across the room to free her from her body.

She managed to intercept another claw as it reached for her brother, damaging the arm badly. The Hollow reared back in pain, and Karin took the opportunity to attack it head-on. Her swing was too wide, it tore the ceiling and slowed her down.

"Over here!" Luckily for her, Ichigo chose that moment to be an idiot and attack the Hollow dead-on. Despite how ineffective a chair is against a Hollow, the beast was distracted throughout Karin's (slow) attack.

"**STAY **_**AWA- RAH!**_" It roared at Ichigo, before the Zanpakto cut into it's neck. The blow was too shallow and the blade stuck in the Hollow's neck.

The demon reared back and rammed itself into the wall, trying desperately to shake off the girl still clinging to her sword. She managed to hold on, and began trying to use the wall for leverage to push the Zanpakto through and decapitate the beast.

"Pull it out!" Hitsugaya shouted.

"Karin!" Ichigo gripped his chair and ran forward.

"You idiot, you can't-"

"I'm coming!" The chair broke on the Hollow's chest, infuriating it enough to ignore Karin in favor of attacking Ichigo.

"**ORIHIME IS **_**MINE!**_"

Hitsugaya cursed under his breath as once again he had to ram himself into the teenager, shoving him far enough under the claw's path that they both received only a gash on the side. He hissed in pain, and Ichigo didn't seem to be much better off.

Karin took the opportunity to pull out her Zanpakto, and as the Hollow moved in to strike again she did so as well.

"Take _this_!" It wasn't a clean blow, but enough of the neck had been severed that the Hollow was purified anyways.

All of them struggled to catch their breath in the aftermath of the attack, the humans from shock and Toshiro because he wasn't used to being… controlled so easily by pain (if he got stabbed through the heart again, the gigai would probably stop working all together).

Karin recovered first, "Take THAT!" She grinned like a madwoman and pointed at the spot where the Hollow had passed on, "That's what happens when you attack _my_ brother, dipface!"

"What- what's going on?" Ichigo puzzled, "What was that thing? You- hey, you know something about this?"

In his frustration, Hitsugaya pushed himself to his feet and got so close to Karin their heads almost touched. "You IDIOT!" Hitsugaya screeched at Karin, "What the hell were you thinking, clinging on like that?"

"Hey, it's dead, isn't it?" She scoffed.

From the floor Ichigo tried again, "Hey, I just asked a question."

"That's not the point!" the young captain yelled.

"I did my job, didn't I? What, did I forget to give it a gift basket before it killed us, or something?"

"Are you even listening?"

"You nearly got us all killed!"

"But that didn't happen!"

"Hey!"

"Only because of this idiot!"

"Yeah, so I'll do better next time."

"Would you two just-"

"How, exactly? By swinging your sword around some more?"

"Well, what else is there?"

"HEY!" Ichigo roared. The other two finally heard him, and they turned to fact him. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Uhh…" Karin realized that her brother had seen the entire thing, and had no response for him. Hitsugaya sighed and shuffled through his pockets until he found the object he was looking for.

"Come closer." Ichigo was reluctant to obey, so the soul reaper added, "I won't hurt you, but you have to get close to this," he help up the device, "for it to work. Once it does, tonight's events won't be confusing." Well, that was technically true.

With some hesitation, Ichigo pushed himself up on his uninjured arm and leaned in, then with a flash a cloud of multi-colored smoke burst out, and the teenager passed out.

Before she could worry, Hitsugaya told his substitute, "He will be fine. The device I just used will erase his memories of this attack, and replace them with something that will explain away the damage done to the room."

"Like what, a helicopter got in here?" Karin pointed to the wall.

"Maybe," Hitsugaya knelt down, and once they were above the boy's injuries his hands began glowing. "I can't control exactly what his mind will come up with, but it should be whatever explanation best fits his view of the world."

The girl was more focused on the healing kido. "I forgot you could do that…"

"Speaking of damage," Hitsugaya added (before he lost his composture), "You need to apply what I teach you to your battles."

"You haven't really taught me that much yet."

"No, but I will. And I have taught you some of the basic stances of Zanjutsu, which you completely ignored."

"It's a lot harder to remember stuff like that when you're fighting for your life." She argued.

"Which is exactly why you need training." The wound on Ichigo's side closed up fully, so the soul reaper put his hand on his own injuries. "If you can't remember to use tactics in battle, then we'll have to put you under stress while training to make sure that you can remember to fight properly."

"How?"

"I don't know yet. But look around you, there's been too much collateral damage, and if it weren't for your brother jumping in, that Hollow would have killed you when you were on it's back."

"But-"

"Next time, there won't be anyone to distract your enemy. If get through a battle by the skin of your teeth, your first reaction should be to think about where you had the most trouble. Then you need to improve in the areas you were weak, so that you have a greater chance of surviving next time you face an opponent as strong, or stronger, than the one you just defeated." The kido finished it's work, and Hitsugaya moved to pick up Ichigo.

Karin started to retort, but thought better of it and instead asked, "So what happens now?"

"With any luck, your father and sister will swallow whatever explanation Ichigo has to give. We're lucky they didn't think to investigate the noise." _The old man probably sensed the Hollow and kept the girl from coming in._ "Tomorrow, I'm going to try to figure out some way to simulate fighting a Hollow for you. In the meantime, I'd rather keep up with Zanjutsu"

("Kendo." Karin commented)

"training in the afternoons, so instead we're going to get up early tomorrow and practice before breakfast."

"What? No way!" Karin protested. The soul reaper put down Ichigo to pull down the covers of the bed. With any luck, the false memories would end with Ichigo going to bed.

"Hey, count your blessings, your body is going to get to sleep in, while my gigai is going to be up with you." _And I sleep less than you do on a daily basis._

"I thought you said that my body dies when I'm not in it."

"Alright, your body will be in a coma until you have to wake up. It's still resting."

"You know, most coma patients need rehab after waking up." _Why do you even know that? _"My dad's a doctor, I play nurse all the time." _Did I say that out loud?_

"Anyways, I'd better get back to my room before Yuzu and dad get back from the bath."

Hitsugaya sighed as the girl reentered her body. "Goodnight." She said.

He didn't respond, instead he sat down on his own bed and continued paperwork.

…..

…..

AN: Short chapter, sorry. And right when I've got to slow down how quickly I upload, sorry. But in terms of plot, it makes more sense to have tis chapter on it's own. So instead, I filled it with secondary information.

Just to mention, the reason why I keep using "Toshiro handles X better than Rukia did" is because of their ranks. At the beginning of _Bleach_ Rukia=Unseated officer and Toshiro=Captain. Captains usually have their rank for a reason, and in the _Bleach_ world, that usually means they're better at fighting. No offense to Rukia, and Toshiro will _not_ handle everything better- Rukia has her strengths.

Also, Karin kind of needs the help to survive. I've already pointed out in past AN's that kids have less ability then teens in terms of physical fighting. So in order for Karin to get by, she needs to have slightly better help.

I know, Orihime doesn't get to see her brother. I knew early on that her confrontation with him wouldn't end the same way it did in cannon, see below for details. I was willing to let go of Orihime's episode, yes. I'd tell you why, but that'd be spoilers.

I got writers block while writing this chapter, which is probably a good thing because to occupy my time I planned out more of the story and changed the direction I want this to go in. I'm going to tell you now: much of the outline of the plot will be the same. The entertainment in the story is just the small differences and character development, and everything else should be cut out. So, *SPOILERS FOR CANNON* I will probably have Aizen be defeated by the second Bankai, unless the story changes along the way. *END SPOILERS*

Now, what does the lack of a significant spiritual-energy increasing event say about Orihime's role in the story? I can tell you this: I don't know yet whether or not the second rescue arc will be included, but I have built the story so that it can happen. And anyone reading this will be able to predict an upcoming plot twist, if not now then before the arc is finished. Wait and see!

BORING STUFF: To be honest, I always knew that Sora wouldn't be able to break his mask in my fanfic, thanks to the chain of events that unfold in cannon, each event being caused by something else:

Sora broke his mask because he saw how much Orihime loves him - Orihime hugged her monstrous brother and told him why she did the things that made him lonely - Orihime knew exactly why Sora was lonely -Sora had a rant about why he was lonely - Ichigo pissed Sora off about attacking Orihime - Ichigo yelled at Sora about attacking Orihime - Ichigo is disgusted with how Sora tried to kill Orihime - Ichigo sees Sora attack Orihime, and projects himself into the situation based on his behavior towards his own siblings - Ichigo feels very protective of his younger siblings

See the last one? That belief is what Karin feel as strongly as Ichigo does. She wouldn't yell at Sora for his behavior, she'd try to kill him for being a monster, so Sora wouldn't have his speech about why he 'really is doing this because he loves his sister'. Orihime wouldn't save her since she wouldn't know why Sora is dong this, hence his attack hits full on and everybody dies.

But after going through at least three individual ideas, I couldn't figure out a good way for Sora to be defeated. When I actually started writing, I remembered the one thing my long-term planning always seems to underestimate: Ichigo. He still exists, and he would not just let his little sister battle a giant monster alone- even if she had a sword and he had no idea what was going on. He'd just keep fighting, and when I pictured the characters in battle I realized that Karin wouldn't have such a great opportunity to break the mask, not with Ichigo holding Sora's attention. Basically, the characters wrote this battle. So eventually this turned into a much simpler battle, with Ichigo actually doing something and Sora's identity never being revealed. I was sad to see him pass on unfulfilled, but as I said earlier I long accepted that he wasn't going to reconcile with Orihime in this.

I'm putting this up right after chapter 2. It's not fully edited, and the AN notes are too long. Right now I just want to get this out there, because after this I only have the first scene of chapter four written out. Henceforth, updates will take much longer. In the memorable words of Rubeus Hagrid: Sorry about that.


	4. Cursed Parakeet

Chapter 4: Cursed Parakeet

Pre-story AN: And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! The episode where in _Bleach_, cannon!Karin actually had plot relevance beyond getting captured!

Something in this fanfic that has to be significantly different (that you were all expecting, unlike the last chapter).

…..

…..

"_Yes, yes, find another target. Get the boy to protect you, or your mother's life is forfeit."_

…..

"_Thank you for saving me, mister. My name is Yuichi Shibata. What's your name?"_

"_Sado. Yasutora."_

…..

"I'm home-"

"Move, Ichigo!" Karin yelled from somewhere outside the storage room. Hearing no indication of disaster Hitsugaya focused on searching the storage room.

_INN, INN, why isn't this alphabe-top shelf._ Less than a week at the Kurosaki clinic, and he was already aware of the storage room's severe lack of footstools, the soul reaper used the shelves as a ladder. By the time his student got to the room he had the box in hand.

"Here." He passed it to her.

"Great," the girl turned to leave, "Find the hard wrap, there's a guy with a broken wrist."

Luckily, Toshiro had already sorted through the bandage section and knew just where to find the roll he was looking for. He grabbed it and returned to the overnight room in time to hold someone's mother still while Yuzu dressed her head wound.

Shortly after they finished Karin shouted, "Hey, we've got a big one over here!" Prompting Toshiro, and eventually Ichigo, to help get the newcomer to a bed while Yuzu worked on setting someone's broken wrist.

The giant man seemed to have less damage that a 'nurse' would know how to heal, so Toshiro left with Yuzu to help other patients while Sh-Isshin took a look at the man's back. He was careful not to display any hesitation when faced with medicine he'd only seen in this world, and at the same time to not show any knowledge not expected of "the son of "Daddy's" friend from Med School".

A few minutes later he heard Isshin yelling, so he and Yuzu went to check out the situation. The large man had somehow managed to stand up, despite the blood seep-

_Wait, that's got traces of a Hollow's spiritual energy on it._

Stupid! How had he not sensed that before? _How come the attack didn't show up on the radar?_ Hitsugaya cut a glance towards Karin to see if she'd noticed.

The girl was staring into space, but not at the injury. Her gaze was fixed on a cage resti-

And that made twice today Hitsugaya's senses failed him. _Either that bird is possessed, or I just found the world's worst reincarnation mix-up._

He turned back to his work for a few minutes, but upon his return Karin hadn't moved from her spot. _That's odd._ His eyes narrowed, _Is there something wrong with the bird that I can't sense? Or is she just confused by this?_

Deciding the latter made more sense, Hitsugaya moved over to stand beside her and gently tap her shoulder.

His student blinked, "Eh?" and stared at him as though waking from a dream.

Hitsugaya clarified, "It's possessed. Don't worry though, the spirit inside shouldn't be dangerous." One of the patients moaned, "Well, not directly, anyways."

Karin blinked at him as though he was speaking Greek. _Something's wrong,_ he frowned, _this isn't like normal shock._ For now he couldn't do much about that, so he elaborated, "I think a Hollow caused the car crash, this man's wounds have trace spirit energy from one."

He nodded at the giant, prompting Karin to slowly turn her head to look at the patient passed out on the bed. "The bird probably attracted the Hollow, but we should be able to do a konso later, after your brother is asleep." Hitsugaya continued, but still Karin moved like a machine on autopilot.

_Something is definitely wrong with her_. He thought, as Yuzu called him over to help hold a pad while she applied bandages.

For now they didn't have time to go through it, but they could talk later.

…..

Karin knew she had better senses then her brother. While Ichigo could see spirits and identify their presence, she'd always picked up on them without trying. Sometimes she could tell if they were freaking out or mellow about their post-humus state, but not always.

But this was nothing she'd ever felt before. She'd tried to ignore it's presence when she first noticed it, reasoning that the (happy) dead can wait when the living are in danger. But once she got close…

_I don't even know what this is!_ It wasn't quite a presence, nor an emotion. It was more like an aura, like she was seeing the bird's essence instead of it's soul.

_Most people would think that those are synonymous._ She thought bitterly.

Even when it left her sight, thoughts of that spirit plagued her. Curled up under the covers, Karin couldn't get it out of her head.

Someone knocked on the door. _Not now, Toshiro._ He'd rather she let one get away then fight at half strength and get hurt, right?

No dice. The door quietly opened a few inches and the boy snuck into the room. Before he could tap her on the shoulder she grumbled at him:

"L'me sleep."

He stayed silent for a few minutes, before whispering,

"There's three Hollows concentrated in one spot. Probably a bad accident, or some other event where a large number of Wholes decided to gather."

"D'nt feel well."

"I'll tell that to the poor souls. If there are any left, once the Hollows have finished feasting."

Groaning loud enough for Toshiro to shush her, Karin turned over and muttered, "Just ge'me out of my body here, so _it_ can sleep."

She didn't see the soul reaper's irritated look, but she could picture it well enough. He obliged anyways, and Karin didn't complain when they exited through the hall instead of the window.

Once they were out of the room he confessed, "Actually, there were no Hollows. I needed to test-"

"Then lemme go back to sleep."

He grabbed her arm. "I did come in here for a reason. I can't get the bird away from the man protecting it, no matter how stealthy I am he always wakes up when I get too close, you'll have to go in spirit form. You can perform the konso invisible to him."

…_Why?_

"Karin?" She face palmed with both hands. "Is something wrong?" _Why the bird?_

"I'll do it," she sighed. Perhaps once the thing had passed on, it would leave her in peace. _Actually, that makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that before?_

She moved slowly as she made her way to the clinic. It wasn't that the feeling got stronger as she got closer, but it hurt all the same.

"So far so good." Karin muttered as she walked into the room the giant was staying in. The parakeet turned its head to face her, _So it's definitely possessed._ The moment it lay eye upon the substitute the bird shrieked at her.

"Get away!" It flapped it's wings desperately, and the moment it spoke a headache suddenly spiked in Karin's brain. "Miss, you have to-"

That was when the giant bolted upright, scanning the room for another person. He didn't even pause over Karin, so she kept going slowly (but steady) while the bird kept shrieking.

"Get away! Get away! Get-"

"What's wrong?" The man asked, "Is there someone in here?" She had to use the curtains for support, and the man saw them bunch up.

But the bird paid no attention to his friend and kept warning Karin. "You have to get away from here! He'll hurt you-"

In retrospect, if the giant couldn't see Karin, he couldn't tell that she was in pain. He couldn't even tell that the bird was calling the wrong pronoun for her to be a threat. As it was, the man _could_ tell what general direction she was in, and that the parakeet was freaking out.

He bolted out, grabbing the cage-

_The fuck is this?_

That's when everything went black.

…/\\…/_/|=|]]{\\\\…..

Where am I?

_I have to run. I have to stay quiet, for Mommy. Mommy said to be quiet, Mommy always knows best…_

…/\\…/_/|=|]]{\\\\…..

_Slap!_

The pain was sharp, but she couldn't force herself to move.

"Get up!" _Toshiro… I should say 'Hi.'_

"Huuh" was the most she could manage. _Did someone turn me into lead? That's bad,_

"Kurosaki!" Toshiro snarled._ I need to hide._

"We need to move!"

_That man-_

"Can you stand?"

_my Mommy-_

"Damn it, you must have been attacked."

_she- bl- no-_

"No answer? Why the hell does he even have a voice mail?"

_mommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommy mommymommy_

"Damn it! It'll be too late by the time I-"

_mommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommy mommymommy_

"Where did…?"

_mommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommymommy mommymommy_

_Hurts._

"I can't leave you here." _Somebody reaching out?_

_Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo_

"Augh!"

_Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo_

"What the hell, Kurosaki?"

_Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo-oh wait, that's Toshiro._

"Better?"

_Toshiro, soul reaper- wait, death has a body? Then where was he when mommy- mommy died years ago- no last month- who-_

_Oh, we're moving._

_Keep moving, mommy said to keep moving- mommy, wasn't there when- blood, blood everywhere- never happened, blood when Ichigo-_

"Stay here." _Whisper, keep your voice down that's Toshiro no mommy_ "The man was missing, but there wasn't any blood, so I've got to see if I can find him. I'll get help later, if whatever the Hollow"

_blood, that was blood, blood on Ichigo, blood on Toshiro, hurt not dead, no bloody means dead, bloodly neck- NO bloody chest_

"hit you with hasn't worn off by then."

…..

Too much time alone with your own thoughts can be hell. It certainly felt that way, even though the experience helped her heal.

"I'm not that boy." She whispered. "So who died?"

…..

Roughly six and a half hours earlier

…..

Hitsugaya cursed his luck, still no signal from his phone.

_So I'm stuck just running in the general direction I think that man would have most likely gone. With a Hollow somewhere on the loose._ Granted, Kurosaki was by no means the most experienced warrior, but whatever had knocked her down had to have hit her hard.

_This is the last thing I need right now._ With Kurosaki out cold, Kurosaki trapped in a human gigai, and Urahara insisting that he was was too busy to leave his shop, that Hollow went unchallenged.

_The timing is too coincidental, it has to be after the bird._ He rationalized, _I have to find it-_

Something large, heavy and metal crashed a few blocks away. _There!_

Sure enough, a few corner turns later and the same giant man from before almost ran into him.

"You-!" The giant kept running straight past him.

_I guess it would be too easy for him to listen to reason._ Hitsugaya resigned himself to running after the man, but his gigai was too slow. He'd almost lost sight of the blood-stained shirt after just a few blocks, until-

"**You smell good."**

Well, scratch that plan. _At least if I have it's attention,_ Hitsugaya thought, _I can lead it away._

He didn't dare stop running, though he couldn't see or sense the beast (which was probably how it snuck up on Kurosaki before) the more he moved, the harder it would be for that thing to hit him.

At the next corner, Hitsugaya turned the opposite way the man with the parakeet had gone. _All of the walls have houses on the other side, damn._ He planned on turning most corners in random directions, but then the thing caught up to him.

His instincts kicked in before the blast could hit him, and on the bright side the Hollow was now visible.

"**How rude, trying to leave. Don't you know- Hey!"**

Hitsugaya didn't wait for it to finish speaking. He got up and turned the next corner.

"**Get BACK here!"**

The thing kept throwing projectiles, but now that he knew where it was they were much easier to dodge. Still, he couldn't keep this up forever, and eventually Hitsugaya knew he would either get hit or be overtaken.

_If I'm going to face this thing, I need a plan…_

"**You know what? Just keep running! I like chasing my prey, and this is-"**

Hitsugaya decided to ignore the monsters ramblings as it ran into a streetlight.. Still, it was soon back on it's feet, and what little distance he had put between the two of them was closing fast.

_This was much easier when I was just trying to get the bird to Urahara's. But he should be too far away- What's he doing here?_

The giant had turned next corner that Hitsugaya could see, though the bird cage was missing. A quick glance told him that there was nowhere he could direct the Hollow away from the civilian.

"Get out of the way!" Hitsugaya shouted. But the giant refused to move, instead he started running towards him. The soul reaper got ready to slam the man, if he had to it would be better for them both to be knocked down then for one to run straight into the Hollow's mouth.

But he didn't have to. The man ran right past Hitsugaya, and he heard a sickening crunch. But then he also heard a roar.

…..

Roughly six and a half hours later

…..

In the time she'd spent, Karin had managed to work out four things:

One: She was Karin Kurosaki.

Two: She somehow had seen the worst memory of Yuichi Shibata.

Three: Yuichi needed Karin's help.

Four: She could barely move while Yuichi's pain echoed through her.

Oh, and just for good measure, five: She needed to throw up.

Karin made it to the toilet in time. As she was emptying her stomach, she heard a voice from behind her:

"Karin?"

The girl was too busy to turn around yet. Not long after, she felt a large hand rub her back in comforting circles. It wasn't that surprising when she looked up and saw her brother's concerned expression.

"Karin, what's wrong?"

…..

Roughly six and a half hours earlier

…..

Yasutora didn't know what his fist had connected with, but considering the situation it was probably whatever was chasing Yuichi.

"I hit _something_." He muttered, _I can hit it again._

But it had moved, since his next few strikes went unconnected. Why not try a different spot?

"Yeah, I hit it." Yasutora noted. It had gotten closer to that boy from Ichigo's house. Said boy spoke up,

"So you can see it?"

"No." The boy looked surprised by this.

"Then, how did you know where to hit it?"

"I didn't." Yasutora shrugged, although the boy looked at him as though he were crazy.

"Then, how did you know where to hit it?"

Yasutora answered, "I just kept swinging blindly. I figured if it was nearby, I had a shot. If not, then I've got no way of finding it until it shows itself."

That seemed to confuse the child even more. "What? Look-" The boy cut himself off, focusing on something between the two of them.

_Is that where the thing is?_ The boy's head tilted back. _Can he see it?_

His eyes snapped back to Yasutora. "Listen, I know this sounds strange, but you have to get away from here." _So he can identify it, at least._ "Hurry!"

He might as well ask now, or at least confirm his suspicious. "Can you see that thing, little boy?"

Something he said must have made the boy angry, but he got distracted by something in the sky.

"Oh no," the kid muttered, then turning to Yasutora he screamed: "Get out of here! It looks like it's ready to dive!"

No time to waste then. "Where?"

"It's headed straight for you!" The boy started running towards him, so Yasutora braced himself to catch both attacks.

It was enough. He felt his fist connect with something from above, as the child tackled him. Yasutora had to grab the boy and twist in order to avoid letting the thing crush him.

Though he couldn't see what hit the ground, this time he heard something connect with the street.

"You…" The boy looked shaken, and Yasutora remembered that he was still holding him. "How did you…" The kid regained his composture, and stepped away from him. "Listen, you may have gotten lucky, but you can't fight that thing. It'll target me over you, so if I run it'll-"

"Are you saying that thing's still up?" Yasutora asked. _Do I need to keep hitting it?_

"What? No, look!" He half-listened to the kid as he walked towards where the thing fell. If he could make the final blow while it was down… "You need to get away from here- And now it's in the sky again."

_I need something to get it with. That telephone pole should do._ "Where is it?" Yasutora asked. The boy didn't stop telling him to leave until Yasutora had broken the pole into a makeshift weapon. "Which way do I have to wave this thing to hit it?" He clarified.

The boy accepted that Yasutora wasn't going to let a child face this thing alone, so he complied and gave directions.

"Again!" The boy shouted, "It's down, but I've seen things like this play dead before!" Yasutora didn't question him, and lifted the pole a few more times. But after the third strike, Yasutora felt something else hit him from behind.

"Damn!" _Little kids shouldn't swear._ "Hold on, I'm going to-" _Something else must have gotten to him._ He head the boy slam into one of the walls.

_Which means this thing isn't alone. Could there be two of them?_ The boy insulted something, he was probably talking to the monster. _No, this doesn't feel like one creature. More like several small things-_

And when he looked up, he could see them. Well, not clearly. But there was something… _wrong_ with the air in front of him. It looked like several isolated spots of weirdness, each one too small to have been the monster he'd just fought.

_I guess these ones are only halfway invisible._ Yasutora decided he had enough of this, any sooner and the monster might do something to the kid.

In a single move, Yasutora managed to get to his feet and knock off the smaller monsters. Behind him he saw the boy pinned to the wall by a much larger distortion. _So maybe it's not that some of these monsters are only halfway invisible, maybe to summon them the bigger monster needs to sacrifice some of its camouflage._

He'd work on it later. Right now, Yasutora needed to get that thing off of the boy. He aimed at the distortion somewhere close to where the boy was. "It worked." Yasutora muttered.

The boy fell to the ground, but he looked alive at least. The biggest blur moved upward, probably in the sky again.

"It's directly above us!" His voice was raspy, but at least he was alive. Yasutora could hear the wind howling above them, _It's probably got wigs that it's using to fly._ "It's not moving, but I can hear it- taunting us?"

Yasutora shrugged it off, "At least it's giving us time to plan our next move."

The boy shook his head. "Listen, there's no way for the two of us to finish this thing off. I know you can hurt it, but trust me- a spiritual monster needs a spiritual weapon to kill."

"So I take it… you've seen someone fight these sort of monsters before?"

"There's no time to explain!" The boy hissed, "I know someone who _can_ kill it, but the problem is we're going to have to bring it to him."

"That's fine." Yasutora said, before remembering something, "Do you know where he lives?"

"Of course I do!" The boy snapped.

"Can you tell me how to get there from here?"

"Hold on, if you just start running, there's no guarantee it will follow you." The boy hissed, "I can see it clearly, therefore I taste better to it."

"So it'll follow you."

"Exactly."

"I see." _That's why he was telling me to run away. There's only one thing we can do._ Yasutora picked up the boy and threw him on his back. "You'll have to give me directions, then."

"What the- Put me down!"

"Left or right?"

"You'll get yourself killed!"

_I'll take that as a "keep going straight."_

"You have three seconds to release me or I'll knock you out."

"I don't think so." _I'm much tougher then that._ "You'd fall as well, and then that thing would catch up with you."

The boy sighed, "Fair enough, but I can run on my own-"

"There's no time to put you down. And besides-"

"Coming in from the left, dodge!"

Sure enough, a large number of something organic hit the ground with several splats. Yasutora managed to get away in time, but barely.

"Okay, new plan." The boy hissed, gripping Yasutora 's back, "I'll tell you where to go, and you go there. But if we have to stop before then, we split up. Is that clear?"

_Then we won't stop. _"Yes."

"Good, now I don't know this area of town very well, but I know which direction we want to go. Turn left the first time you get to a street that isn't a dead end."

"How am I supposed to know what isn't a dead end?"

"I don't know!"

…..

Roughly six and a half hours later

…..

"Better?" Ichigo waited to ask until after his sister had stopped vomiting.

"Mm." Big brother. He deals with ghosts and stuff.

"So, what brought that on? Are you sick-"

"Ichigo." Karin started.

"-or something?" He quieted once he realized what she had said.

Karin didn't quite know how to word her question. "Have you- have you ever-" _I don't even know what happened._ Try something else?

She asked, "Why do you go out of your way to help all those spirits?"

"I thought you were in permanent denial?" Karin growled as she gripped the edge of the toilet seat. "Hey, it was just a joke." He sighed, "Because I can, I guess. Because somebody has to, and they're not just going to find peace sitting there."

_That sounds like something the hero of a soap opera would say, two episodes before sacrificing himself to save someone._

Ichigo must have guessed what she was thinking, because he went on. "I know, it sounds ridiculous. But every spirit I help-"

"What if you couldn't?" Karin whispered. _Blood, runrunhide- Oh look, I'm crying._ "What if- what if somebody was hurt" _can'tleavecan'tletitgo He's in so much pain_ "and- and-"

…..

Roughly six and a quarter hours earlier

…..

Hitsugaya's plan had worked, but not as well as he'd hoped. The Hollow kept switching between running and flying, and it had a nasty habit of cutting ahead of them to block of a major street. The two of them had made some progress, but the damn thing kept pushing them back, herding them away from their goal.

_It knows we're going to get help._ Hitsugaya realized, _It's not afraid of anything we throw at it,_ He looked up as the thing jabbered more petty insults, _but it knows we're relying on getting to our destination. It's playing with us._

But eventually the Hollow made a mistake. It built a barricade of minions only half a meter high, as though that would stop them.

"Between those two walls, you need to jump about two feet high to get over them." He instructed his companion.

"I know." The giant said, "It's getting clearer." He leapt at just the right time-

And then the barricade exploded, sending both of them flying.

"**HAH! How'd you like that!"** The Hollow roared, **"That's my specialty. Exploding leeches!"** It laughed, which Hitsugaya surveyed the area for damage. **"I gotta keep my best secrets hidden, after all!"**

The man was getting back up, but the creatures were too fast. This time they just pukes up a number of long, slimy things. Unable to get up in time, Hitsugaya twisted and rolled to the side.

_One's got my leg._ He managed to kick it off, but it was difficult to roll out of the way of the oncoming bombs.

He heard a grunt, and then there was the giant, hauling him to his feet.

"**So, what do you think? Personally-"**

"We have to get out of here." Hitsugaya heard the man whisper, happily tuning out the Hollow as it rambled on.

"I know. But that thing's too close, it'll get us quickly." _And what's more, those things have explosives inside of them. Think. How does it keep them from hitting itself. There has to be some way it's controlling those bombs…_ "I have an idea, but you'll have to trust me, and do exactly as I say."

Luckily this monster loved the sound of it's own voice, and Hitsugaya had enough time to whisper his idea.

"No way." The man responded. "You'd get yourself killed."

"Do we have a choice?" Hitsugaya whispered back.

"**Hey, are you even listening to me?"**

_Perfect timing for the Hollow to clue in…_ "Right now we haven't got time to think of something else." He hissed.

"**Stop ignoring me!"**

_Better just to go with it and hope he goes along._ Hitsugaya lunged forward, dodging the frog-things and heading straight for the monster. Despite being proficient, he murmured under his breath as he went.

_Go for it…_

Luckily it took the bait, and swatted at Hitsugaya instead of sending more frogs. **"Hah! You must **_**want**_** me to eat you if-"**

"Sho!"

A single dot of light left his index finger, not even enough to scratch the beast. But that didn't matter, it was enough to scare the Hollow for a minute. It flinched as the spell hit it's mask, long enough for the giant to strike.

"**Son of a bitch!"**

The giant managed to pick Hitsugaya up again as they left. After all, he had more stamina, and the soul reaper would be far less useful if he wore his gigai down.

"You think that got him?" The man asked.

"You definitely hit it, but I don't think it's down." Sure enough, the thing roared loud enough that even the human flinched. "Anyways, killing it was never our intention. That was just to get it and it's puppets further away from us."

"So now it's back to running."

"Until we can think of another plan- to your left!"

One maneuver later, Hitsugaya finished his sentence. "Yes."

…..

Roughly six hours and ten minutes later

…..

_Put it into words, why can't I help him pass on? screaminglaughing _"and you weren't strong enough to help them."

"Weren't strong enough?" He paused. Karin focused on _Mommy, get up. Please, Mommy. Don't leave me alone with_-

"That's a hard question to answer." Ichigo squat to be eye level with his sister. "And it's one that I've asked myself a lot, lately."

_Mr. Big-shot-ghost-talker?_ "What are you talking about?"

"In all honesty, I can't save the ghosts I talk to. Most of the time, they just disappear and leave behind a few drops of blood that only I can see. I'd like to think that's some psychopomp's symbol to show that they've passed on, but…

"I know I'm not strong enough to protect them all. Maybe I never will be. But if I let that get to me, and I stop talking to them, then I might as well be killing those ghosts myself."

"Ichigo…" Karin said, "How the hell did you come up with that dumb idea?" Ichigo sputtered in protest. "It's not like it's your fault that you don't have enough power."

"I know." Ichigo said, "But if the my problem is that I'm powerless, then I have to get stronger. If I can, maybe one day- I don't know, I'll figure out how to take ghosts to the other side or something."

Ichigo sighed, "Look, here's a life lesson for you: Just because you're helpless now, doesn't mean you have to stay that way. If you keep fighting, and keep yourself alive, you're bound to get stronger eventually. And when you do-"

He stood up, and offered Karin his hand. "-_then_ you can make a difference. Then you can protect the people you care about." She took it.

_bloodbloodblood I can't let him suffer in silence. OhgodMommystoppedscreaming I'm the only one who can help him wakeupwakeupwakeup "keep fighting and stay alive"_

"Ichigo," Karin hugged her brother and buried her face in his shirt. "Thank you."

"Any time." _I think I know what to do now._ "Hey, Karin, are you crying?"

She couldn't force herself to smile when she looked at him, but she didn't care. The girl turned around and ran down the stairs. "Hold on, where are you going? It's five in the morning!"

The substitute called out while she put on her shoes, "I'll be back, there's something I've gotta do."

"Wait, Karin!"

_I'm sorry, Yuichi. I don't know if I'll actually be able to do anything for you. Right now I have to focus on finding you first or I'll_

_Okay, leave that train of thought alone. I have to find Yuichi. Even if I can't help, so long as I try, he won't be alone._

…..

Roughly five hours and forty-five minutes earlier

…..

Yasutora always knew that running from your demons was no way to face them. Now that saying was manifesting literally, in the form of a dead-end.

"Damn it." The boy on his back was a little too foul-mouthed, but Yasutora had to agree with him. He could hear a wavering noise, probably the thing behind them saying something. Whatever it was doing, it probably got quieter since Yasutora couldn't hear anything else, but the distortions didn't move.

"Listen, it's monologuing again," the boy whispered in Yasutora 's ear, "See how the fence is made of metal chains?"

_Kind of hard to miss. _"Yes."

"I've been watching this thing, and I noticed it opens it's mouth every time one of those bombs goes off. I think it needs to give some sort of command, or they don't explode. These chains are pretty thick, but it could probably cut them if it used it's claws, or blew them up."

"If you're saying what I think you're saying…"

"First we work together to get it to break off a part of the fence. Then, I'll grab a trash can or something-"

"There aren't any around." Yasutora said.

"Fine then, we'll try to get it to break off one of these bars, too." The boy whispered urgently, "But I'm going to have to keep it from making any noise, then you just have to pull the chains around it's head. If we can force it's mouth closed, we'll have a much better chance."

Yasutora wanted to protest the kid putting himself in such danger, but he remembered the last plan they made. And the one in the abandoned warehouse, with the dust. _He knows what he's doing. I'm willing to bet that this is not a normal boy._

He nodded, and then put the boy down. The two of them began edging apart, Yasutora watching the monster the entire time.

He noticed the smaller creatures before they could hit him, but there were too many. _There were two types of smaller ones, weren't there?_ Yasutora thought as he dodged, _The bigger ones can move, but the smaller ones explode. It must have released a large number of smaller ones instead of-_

"Mmf!" He heard something, and when he looked the boy's arm was stuck to his side. _He didn't make it._ Yasutora tried to pick out the monsters, before-

The boy's head exploded.

"NO!"

More of the strange noise permeated the air, and Yasutora realized that the sound was laughter.

_It's going down._ Yasutora decided. He got ready to charge it, when he felt something… else. Another distortion but this was-

_Not warmer,_ He decided, _but not malevolent, and more powerful. I'm not sensing any cruel intentions from this one._

The other shape was coming from within the boy's corpse, and as it got larger the corpse moved with it. _It's coming from him?_ Yasutora wondered, _No, it _was_ him. Whatever I'm seeing now has been possessing that boy, or maybe the boy was dead to begin with and it used his corpse._

"**-ssn-Iis—fantastic?"**

Yasutora gaped, once words began forming from the noises. As he watched, he could see colors attach onto the blurs. Mostly green, with a blur of white concentrated in one area. A few specks of green replaced smaller blurs, and further away the glowing figure was mostly white. _Matches his hair._

More laughter, the monster benefited from having the other spirit leave it's body. _It doesn't matter what I'm seeing now. I know that one of these spirits wants to hurt me, and the other one has been helping me stay alive._

When the larger spirit landed, Yasutora took a shot at it. He managed to hit the white part once, and he got close enough to the smaller figure to pick it up.

_Feels boy-shaped._ "Is this silk?"

"All the things in the world, and you question my clothing?" Yasutora turned to the spirit in his arms. "Oh, what am I saying!"

"Hey, is that you?" Yasutora asked.

"What?" The voice said.

He managed to dodge the blow before it hit.

"**Grah!"**

They didn't have a moment to waste. "So are we sticking with the old plan?"

"No," The spirit said, "I still haven't fully recovered, in this form I won't be able to move fast enough."

"Alright, then." _When all you have is a hammer…_

He rushed forward to attack. _At least now I can see my target._

"Wait, no!" The not-boy yelled too late. The monster could be fast when it wanted to be, and this time it didn't stop after swatting him.

"**Rrrah! Why won't you just STAY DOWN!?"** The thing slammed him into the ground, and then everything went black.

…..

_Did you hit someone again, Yasutora?_

_I understand, abuelo._

_Please lend me strength._

…..

_I really don't want to die._

Being eaten by a Hollow is not a good way to die. _I really should have been more careful._ Hitsugaya thought idly. _Now, it's too late._

When something chases you with relative ease for more then ten minutes, it's usually a sign that you're doomed. He hadn't lasted more then a few minutes once the large man had gone down before the Hollow managed to catch him.

_Pathetic, really._ With it's claws around his neck, there wasn't much the soul reaper could do.

But death never came. Hitsugaya felt a spike of reiatsu just as he saw a blast of white light, and then he was falling. Instead of being shoved messily into the Hollow's mouth, something had blasted away everything but the arm holding him.

The Hollow re-formed anyways, and the gates of Hell appeared. Hitsugaya paid it no notice, and instead turned towards the source of his salvation.

It was the man, now standing tall, his right arm covered in a red armor unlike any Hitsugaya had seen before.

No sooner had Hitsugaya gotten a good long then the man fell over. The prodigy quickly got up and rushed over to the giant. He appeared to be alright, even if he was breathing heavily. The wound on his head had sealed up _probably in a rush of spirit energy if this man was responsible for killing the Hollow._

"Can you hear me?" Hitsugaya asked. The man's eyes met his own.

"…Hey, are you okay?" He must be joking. Why would the stranger be asking after someone else's health when he himself was so drained?

"What? I'm fine. It's you who-"

"Good." The man let his gaze fall.

"What?" He must be one of those martyr types who think they'll become legends if they die saving someone else.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?"

"What are those?" The giant was staring intensely dead ahead.

"…Those are the gates of hell." _I guess you can see them too, now._

"Good." There was nothing 'good' about hell, but whatever the human thought of it must have been comforting to him.

"We still need to get you checked…" the man had passed out before Hitsugaya could finish his sentence. His armor vanished as well, and his breathing evened out.

_And now I'm stuck in a vulnerable state and an unconscious human. Again._ He thought morbidly. _It's possible that shopkeeper will show up again…_

"Well. Look what we have here!" _…right when he can make the most money out of me._ "Man, captain, you sure know how to pick 'em!"

"Urahara," Hitsugaya growled as he struggled to pick up the man. "I suppose you're here to sell me a new gigai?"

"Mmm, I'm afraid we'll have to repair the old one." The shopkeeper hummed, "I gave you a real bargain last time, and those things don't come cheap."

"Whatever," He snapped, "Let's just get moving."

The tall man _he was from earlier, right?_ Came forward. "I can carry him, if you'd like." He offered.

"That won't be-" before Hitsugaya could finish, the other man had picked up the unconscious one.

"Oh no, I insist!"

_Well, at least I'm going to an expert on abnormalities in the human world._

…..

Roughly thirty minutes later

…..

Karin had felt much more confident at home. Now she'd been wandering around for god knew how long, and still couldn't find the bird.

_So much for helping him, I can't even-_

"Hey, you!" The speaker was a boy with bright red hair, walking next to a girl with black pigtails and a picture in her hand. "You Kurosaki Karin?"

_What on earth? Who is this kid?_ "Yeah, what's it to you?" Karin shot back.

"Boss told us to find you!" He shouted, "Said your friend wanted to meet you back at our place, gave us this." Karin could see something small and metal in the boy's hand. When she got close enough to examine it, it was unmistakable.

_That's Toshiro's phone._ "So, you coming or what?"

…..

…..

AN:

During the process of writing this chapter, I discovered I have lost my story notes. Don't worry, I still remember how I want everything to go, I just don't have it all written down.

On Karin's development in this chapter: First of all, when Karin touched the bird, she basically saw everything she saw in cannon in a single moment. This actually helped her, since going over traumatic memories slowly causes them to be ingrained in a persons mind more deeply. Having them all shoved in a single moment is worse short-term, since it hurts like hell, but in the long-term, it's easier to forget more of the memories sooner, since they get lost next to all the other traumatic memories.

In cannon, Karin went straight to Ichigo for help. I've come up with two reasons for this: He's her older brother who's always protected her and he makes her feel safe, and Ichigo was the only person in the family who actually tried to help dead people (that she knows). Ichigo was consoling spirits for years and as far as she knows if anyone could soothe the dead, it would be him. In this fanfic, Karin knows far more about the afterlife then Ichigo does. She's also seen him get hurt by Hollows twice, and by this point she's not going to run to him for help when it comes to the supernatural.

Oh, and I am well aware that realistically by the physics of the Bleach world, Sado would need more time for his spirit energy to grow until he had enough to use. There's a good reason why Sado developed his powers so quickly.

Reviews: Thanks to everyone who reviewed.


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